7 killed, 50 injured in Bangladesh shopping mall fire

March 14, 2009

Seven people died and 50 others were injured during a fire at Bangladesh's largest shopping mall on Friday.

The dead include six security guards, three of whom were found in an elevator. The seventh was an employee with the mall fire fighting unit who died from injuries in the hospital.



Survivors on the rooftop were rescued by Bangladesh Air Force helicopters. Shoppers fled the mall. The 22 story Basundhara City Complex in Dhaka has more than 2,000 shops and restaurants. It is not known how many were in the mall nor the exact death count. Flames and smoke billowed from the top floors of the mall.

Fifteen fire trucks were dispatched to the fire. Due to high winds and no ladders which would reach the 18th floor, the blazing inferno took between seven to ten hours to extinguish. The fire began in the Basundhara offices on the 18th floor.