Ctg slum fire: Houses, books, dreams burned to ashes

Rahima Begum was working at a house just a kilometre away from home. 

When she heard about the fire at Firingi Bazar's slum, she ran there and found nothing left of the home she had built over the last decade.

"I barely make ends meet by working as a housekeeper. I left for work with a single piece of clothing, and that's all I have left now," said Rahima as she was sitting near the debris of her burnt-down house. 

"I have been living here for 30 years. We rebuilt everything after the 2012 fire and are now back on the streets again," she said. 

"I don't know how to start all over again."

Ankita Das, a student at Enayet Bazar Mohila College, will participate in the HSC exams this year. Her exams are scheduled to start on 30 June but the fire today burned all her books. 

She was seen crying by the debris of her home, trying to pick up the charred economics book under a half-burnt wooden box. 

"My HSC exam is just a few months away. I have prepared for this for so long, the fire just took all my dreams," Ankita said.

"Where will I get the books now, how will I prepare for the exams?" she asked. 

The fire that broke out at Chattogram's Firingi Bazar slum around 1:20pm this afternoon burned 87 houses and a temple to ashes. 

The blaze was brought under control at 2:20pm after an hour-long effort by nine units of fire service. 

It was caused by an electrical wire malfunction, said Kafil Uddin, Mobilizing officer of the Agrabad Fire Service and Civil Defence.

There were no casualties in the fire.