The fire at Dhaka's Korail slum has been put out
4:24pm: Fire Service and Civil Defence Assistant Director Masudur Rahman says: “The fire has been put out. Our team is still on the spot.
“They are helping the dwellers clean the place.”
3:47pm: Eleven-year-old slum dweller Sithi says: “My school dress has been burnt in the fire. I can no longer go to school. I have no idea when I will be able to join school.”
1:10pm: “I have been living in Korail slum for six years, but, a large number of my family members have been here for a longer period. We will not leave this place,” says Shahida, a RMG worker, who lives in a rented shanty.
“We expect that the landlord, like previous times, will repair our house so that we do not leave the place,” she added.
12:50pm- Although the slum dwellers claim around 2500-3000 houses were burnt down in the blaze, fire service officials say the number is closer to 500.
12:30pm- Lucky Akhter, a ninth grader student and a also a slum dweller, says she brought books worth Tk10,000 on Wednesday but all of them were burnt down.
She says: “We are pretty sure that this is a case of arson. If the government told us, we would have been shifted to another place. There was no point to setting fire to our belongings.”
12:16pm- Fifty-year-old slum dweller Jarina says: “The fire was an act of sabotage. Everything that I had has been burnt to ashes in the fire.”
