Bangladesh: a gigantic fire devastates a clothing market in Dhaka

UPGRADE DAY

Hundreds of firefighters were battling a massive blaze in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, on Tuesday as it raged through a popular clothing market, suffocating the city's old quarters with black smoke.  

No casualties have been reported so far, but shop owners and fire officials said the famous Bongo Bazar market, and three other smaller markets around it, had been almost completely destroyed by fire .

“Some 600 firefighters (…) are working to control the fire,” Rakibul Islam, a spokesman for the fire department, told AFP, adding that the fire broke out around 6 a.m. Tuesday. morning (0000 GMT) and was still raging by late morning.

Army, Navy and Air Force teams had been deployed to help contain the fire, according to military authorities.

“A Bangladesh Air Force helicopter also joined in the firefighting efforts,” a spokesman said. military.

Shop owners, in shock, in tears and sitting on the pavement, desperate to see their last chance to recover the stocks of clothes they had planned to sell for Eid go up in smoke , the most important Muslim holiday of the year.

“I lost everything. I borrowed 1.5 million taka ($14,200) to buy clothes for Eid,” a stall owner said in tears.

Bongo Bazar is one of the Dhaka's main markets where clothes, produced for major Western brands in Bangladeshi factories and rejected at quality control, are sold at ridiculous prices.