On June 3rd a fire at Nawab Katra, Nimtali in Old Dhaka (Puran Dhaka) claimed the life of at least 117 people, mostly women and children, injuring hundreds more. It seems that the fire was caused by the explosion of a chemical warehouse situated on the ground floor of a five-store residential building. As mentioned in the articles of the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star, people were trapped inside the building as there was no emergency exit. Because of its location, the fire brigades were not able to get there fast enough. When they finally arrived, the building had already been so engulfed by flames that they were ordered to stay back. It would have been very dangerous for the rescue operation to simply enter the building.

It is estimated that 80% of residential houses in Old Dhaka have some kind of factory or warehouse on the ground floors and residential flats on other floors. Most of these warehouses or factories are either of chemicals or plastic materials. It is also reported that 50,000 houses of Old Dhaka are risky for living. Most of the houses in Old Dhaka grew in clusters. The roads are very narrow making access to the buildings very difficult. That is what happened in the Nimtali incident. It was very difficult to rescue the victims. (Author: Nadia Goodman)