Firefighters had to struggle quite a lot to bring the fire under control due to the huge crowd in front of Mohammadpur Krishi Market, said Director of the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD) Lt Col Md Tajul Islam on Thursday (September 14, 2023).“It took time to douse the flame due to overcrowding and the police and BGB have faced difficulties in controlling the crowd of onlookers,” he said while talking to reporters.Replying to a question, the fire department director said the fire might have originated from a grocery shop and an investigation will be carried out to identify the reason behind the fire. Fire at Mohammadpur Krishi Market: Traders lament losing everythingTwo people were slightly injured but no casualty was reported.He also claimed that there is no adequate water supply at the market and no primary fire controlling equipment.Besides, there is no safety plan at the market. The authorities concerned have issued notices several times, and public awareness programmes were carried out at different times but there was no response from the market authorities, said Tajul. Fire at Dhaka’s Mohammadpur Krishi Market under control; smoke still billowingTalking about the surroundings of the market, Tajul said it is like Bangabazar and the small alleys were blocked by piles of goods, and collapsible gates were closed which created a problem for the firefighters.The night guards of the market were not present during the fire, forcing the firefighters to break the collapsible gates, he said. 8 killed in 1,667 fire incidents in August: Fire Service“When we reached the spot, we saw that fire engulfed almost three-quarters of the market and the firefighting units worked hard to contain it,” said.The fire broke out at the market around 3:43 am and spread soon, said Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters (Media Cell).Seventeen firefighting units are working to fully douse the blaze. It was brought under control around 9:25 am.

The massive fire at New Supermarket, next to Dhaka New Market, was finally doused this morning (April 16, 2023)- around 27 hours after it started and burnt down several shops and establishments during this busy Eid shopping season. Lima Khanom, duty officer (control room) of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters said the flame was finally doused around 9 am today. Earlier yesterday, the fire broke out at around 5:40 am.  Read more: Fire at Dhaka’s New Supermarket now under control A total of 28 firefighting units and teams of Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force took part in the effort to douse the fire. The fire was brought under control around 9:10 am yesterday. Some 32 people, including firefighters, fell sick from the heavy smoke while firefighters were trying to douse the blaze. On April 4 morning, a massive fire broke out at Bangabazar Shopping Complex in Dhaka, burning several thousand shops to ashes. A total of six adjacent markets were also burnt. Read More: Fire safety system of New Supermarket was very weak: Fire Service The fire was doused on April 7, over 75 hours after it broke out.  

A fire that broke out in a shoe warehouse at Alu Bazar in Old Dhaka on Thursday evening has been brought under control. The fire started around 5 pm on the fifth floor of a five-storied building. Read more: Fire breaks out at BM container depot in Chattogram Six firefighting units brought the blaze under control around 5:35 pm, said Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of fire service and civil defense headquarters (media cell). The origin of the fire could not be known yet.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday asked the Fire Service and Civil Defence to focus on boosting the capacity by engaging the common people in its operations. “You should strengthen the disaster prevention system by raising public awareness, enhancing the capacity of the Fire Service and Civil Defence through greater involvement of the common people in its work,” she said. "This will also boost the morale of the members " The premier was addressing the opening ceremony of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) Week-2022, held at FSCD Training Complex in the city's Mirpur-10 area, through a virtual platform from her official residence Ganabhaban. The week is being observed throughout the country aiming to create mass awareness to prevent fire incidents and other natural and manmade disasters. Read more: Bangladesh committed to path of sustainable development Hasina asked the FSCD members to keep these goals in mind while observing the fire service week 2022. She said everyone should get fire safety training in a bid to protect their lives in case of fire incidents. “I think it is very essential to impart training to all from their childhood --our children and housewives– over how to protect themselves in case of fire incidents,” she said. Focusing on the actions implemented by her government to modernise the Fire Service and Civil Defence, the PM said, “We’ve been able to take the institution, which was once neglected, to a dignified position now in line with the demand of time.” Sheikh Hasina said the government has improved the FSCD significantly in the last 14 years in terms of its service standard and safety and dignity of its members. She said her government took different steps to make the firefighters as a time-befitting force and expand its services further. “We’ve taken measures to transform the fire service into an institute so that it would have full capacity and could deliver the highest services,” she said. The PM said the implementation of her government’s commitment to set up at least a fire station in each upazila is going to be completed. She said the government has taken initiative to set up Bangabandhu Fire Academy aiming at imparting high quality training to the firefighters. A total of 1,184 fire service officers and employees have so far given foreign training, she added. The FSCD manpower was increased to 14,443 now from 6,175 ones in 2008, while the number of fire stations to 491 ones (from 204 ones in 2008). More 52 stations will be opened soon, she said, adding that the number of the stations would cross 700 when the existing projects are completed. Read more: Grow more food, keep enough stock to avert any crisis: PM Hasina Talking about different modern equipment inducted to the FSCD mechanical fleet, the PM said they have purchased a huge quantity of modern and world standard fire dousing and rescue equipment to enhance the capacity of the Fire Service and Civil Defence. She said her government procured a total of 26 small and large Turntable Ladder (TTL) vehicles including five world-highest 68-metre TTL vehicles for the fleet of the fire service. The 68-metre-high TTL vehicles have recently been added to the mechanical fleet of FSCD in a bid to tackle high-rise fire incidents as their ladders can expand up to 24 floors of multi-storied buildings, with a large-capacity to fight fire hazards. The PM said the fire service has been equipped with two remote control fire fighting vehicles while 24 rescue boats and 10 fire floats were purchased to strengthen operational capacity on water way. She said the government has a plan to introduce a lifetime ration for firefighters. Noting that the government had earlier donated Tk 20 crore to the Welfare Trust Fund of Fire Service Staff, Hasina announced that she would donate more Tk 20 crore to the Welfare Trust as the number of its members has increased. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Secretary of Security Service Division Abdullah Al Masud Chowdhury and Fire Service and Civil Defence Director General Brig Gen Md Main Uddin spoke on the occasion. On behalf of the PM, the home minister handed over the Fire Service and Civil Defence Medal-2022 to 45 firefighters and relatives of 13 firefighters who were killed in the recent BM Container Depot fire at Sitakunda. A smartly-turned out FSCD contingent, led by parade commander Anwarul Haque presented salute to the prime minister.

Firefighters have gotten their first hold on California’s deadliest and most destructive fire of the year and expected that the blaze would remain stalled through the weekend. The McKinney Fire near the Oregon border was 10% contained as of Wednesday night and bulldozers and hand crews were making progress carving firebreaks around much of the rest of the blaze, fire officials said at a community meeting. The southeastern corner of the blaze above the Siskyou County seat of Yreka, which has about 7,800 residents, was contained. Evacuation orders for sections of the town and Hawkinsville were downgraded to warnings, allowing people to return home but with a warning that the situation remained dangerous. About 1,300 residents remained under evacuation orders, officials said. The fire didn’t advance on Wednesday, following several days of brief but heavy rain from thunderstorms that provided cloudy, damper weather. “This is a sleeping giant right now,” said Darryl Laws, a unified incident commander on the blaze. In addition, firefighters expected Thursday to fully surround a 1,000-acre (404-hectare) spot fire on the northern edge of the McKinney Fire. The fire broke out last Friday and has charred nearly 90 square miles (233 square kilometers) of forestland, left tinder-dry by drought. More than 100 homes and other buildings have burned and four bodies have been found, including two in a burned car in a driveway. The blaze was driven at first by fierce winds ahead of a thunderstorm cell. More storms earlier this week proved a mixed blessing. A drenching rain Tuesday dumped up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) on some eastern sections of the blaze but most of the fire area got next to nothing, said Dennis Burns, a fire behavior analyst. The latest storm also brought concerns about possible river flooding and mudslides. A private contractor in a pickup truck who was aiding the firefighting effort was hurt when a bridge gave out and washed away the vehicle, Kreider said. The contractor had non-life-threatening injuries, she said. However, no weather events were forecast for the next three or four days that could give the fire “legs,” Burns said. Read: Wildfires in West explode in size amid hot, windy conditions The good news came too late for many people in the scenic hamlet of Klamath River, which was home to about 200 people before the fire reduced many of the homes to ashes, along with the post office, community center and other buildings. At an evacuation center Wednesday, Bill Simms said that three of the four victims were his neighbors. Two were a married couple who lived up the road. “I don’t get emotional about stuff and material things,” Simms said. “But when you hear my next-door neighbors died ... that gets a little emotional.” Their names haven’t been officially confirmed, which could take several days, said Courtney Kreider, a spokesperson with the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. Simms, a 65-year-old retiree, bought his property six years ago as a second home with access to hunting and fishing. He went back to check on his property Tuesday and found it was destroyed. “The house, the guest house and the RV were gone. It’s just wasteland, devastation,” Simms said. He found the body of one of his two cats, which he buried. The other cat is still missing. He was able to take his two dogs with him to the shelter. Harlene Schwander, 82, lost the home she had just moved into a month ago to be closer to her son and daughter-in-law. Their home survived but her house was torched. Schwander, an artist, said she only managed to grab a few family photos and some jewelry before evacuating. Everything else — including her art collection — went up in flames. “I’m sad. Everybody says it was just stuff, but it was all I had,” she said. California and much of the rest of the West is in drought and wildfire danger is high, with the historically worst of the fire season still to come. Fires are burning in Montana, Idaho and Nebraska and have destroyed homes and threaten communities. Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. California has seen its largest, most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the last five years. In 2018, a massive blaze in the Sierra Nevada foothills destroyed much of the city of Paradise and killed 85 people, the most deaths from a U.S. wildfire in a century. In northwestern Montana, a fire that has destroyed at least four homes and forced the evacuation of about 150 residences west of Flathead Lake continued to be pushed north by winds on Wednesday, fire officials said. Crews had to be pulled off the lines on Wednesday afternoon due to increased fire activity, Sara Rouse, a public information officer, told NBC Montana. There were concerns the fire could reach Lake Mary Ronan by Wednesday evening, officials said. The fire, which started on July 29 in grass on the Flathead Indian Reservation, quickly moved into timber and charred nearly 29 square miles (76 square km). The Moose Fire in Idaho has burned more than 85 square miles (220 square kilometers) in the Salmon-Challis National Forest while threatening homes, mining operations and fisheries near the town of Salmon. And a wildfire in northwestern Nebraska led to evacuations and destroyed or damaged several homes near the small city of Gering. The Carter Canyon Fire began Saturday as two separate fires that merged.

Four people have been killed in a crash of a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office helicopter that was headed back to Albuquerque after assisting firefighters in another New Mexico city, authorities said Sunday. Sheriff’s officials said three people from the sheriff’s office and a county firefighter were aboard the helicopter when it went down near Las Vegas, New Mexico, about 123 miles (197 kilometers) northeast of Albuquerque. Killed in the crash were Undersheriff Larry Koren, Lt. Fred Beers, Deputy Michael Levison and county Fire and Rescue Department Specialist Matthew King, according to sheriff's officials. The ages of the four men weren't immediately available. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman had said the Bell UH-1H helicopter crashed around 10 p.m. Saturday, but sheriff's officials said it was about 7:20 p.m. The cause of the crash is unknown and will be investigated by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board. Read:Ukrainian cargo plane crashes in Greece New Mexico State Police confirmed the crash and the fatalities around 12:15 a.m. Sunday. They said helicopter and its crew had been assisting with a wildfire in the Las Vegas area Saturday, providing bucket drops and other air logistics needs to fire crews on the ground. Sheriff's officials said they now are working with the Office of the Medical Investigator to recover the bodies of the four men and take them back to Albuquerque. Aerial video from KOAT-TV showed the wreckage of the helicopter in at least two pieces among some desert shrubs, the Albuquerque Journal reported. In the past several days, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office used its Metro 2 helicopter to fight a small fire in the East Mountains near Albuquerque and another fire near Santa Fe, according to Albuquerque TV station KQRE. “I am heartbroken by the tragic loss of four New Mexicans while in the line of duty," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. "As we await additional details on the investigation, my office will offer any available support and assistance to the sheriff’s office and the county. State resources will be fully available to assist the investigation.”

A fire drill was conducted at Bangabazar Market in Dhaka on Saturday, marking the International Fire Prevention Day. Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense arranged the programme early on Saturday, said a release. Deputy Director of Fire Service and Civil Defense (Dhaka division), Dinmoni Sharma led the hour-long fire drill. Some 20 units from seven fire stations participated in the programme. Some local people, including the owners of shops and security guards, also joined the programme. READ: PRAN holds fire drill at factory in Narsingdi Fire Prevention Day is observed on October 9. The day aims at promoting awareness on the ways to prevent fire disasters.  The celebration of the day recognises the work of the firefighters who relieve people during emergency situations. READ: Firefighters rescue cat from Jashore hospital

Firefighters were making progress on a wildfire that jumped across a Southern California freeway and spread across dry hillsides while a new blaze forced residents of a Northern California community to evacuate. The fire broke out Saturday afternoon near Castaic in northern Los Angeles County. Pushed by 10-15mph (16-24 kph) winds, the blaze chewed through tinder-dry brush and jumped across the busy freeway, spread across more than a half of a square mile. The California Highway Patrol closed a stretch of the interstate for several hours as air tankers dropped bright-orange retardant on the flames. A large flareup sent heavy smoke drifting toward freeway lanes Sunday afternoon, the CHP reported. Two firefighters were taken to the hospital to treat burn injuries, said Andrew Mitchell, a spokesman for the Angeles National Forest. Read:Biden to survey wildfire damage, make case for spending plan Officials said the fire was about 63% contained Sunday, adding that firefighters made progress overnight with the help of water-dropping aircraft and an aggressive ground attack, Mitchell said. He said crews would take advantage of the beginning of a cooling trend Sunday to build containment lines. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Meanwhile, a fire that erupted Sunday afternoon prompted Mendocino County authorities to evacuate parts of Calpella, a community on the Russian River about 6 miles (10 kilometers) north of Ukiah. Video footage posted on Twitter shows the fire pushing in the direction of Lake Mendocino. Further north, residents of a mountain town devastated by the huge Caldor Fire south of Lake Tahoe will be allowed back Sunday to inspect the damage. Most of Grizzly Flat’s homes, as well as the school, post office, church and fire station were destroyed in the first days of the month-old fire. Evacuation orders were also lifted for homes along State Route 50 as containment of the 342-square-mile (886 square kilometer) wildfire increased to 65%. President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration late Sunday for El Dorado County in an effort to provide federal funding to state, tribal and eligible local governments, plus certain private nonprofit organizations, who have been affected by damage from the Caldor Fire. Firefighters were diverted from battling the blaze to fight multiple overnight lightning fires when thunderstorms swept across the state Thursday night into Friday. Read:At least 1 dead, 10 missing in landslide near Mexico City The thunderstorms dropped light rain to slightly dampen the drought-stricken north, fire officials said. Up to a half-inch of rain fell on portions of the Dixie Fire, which began in mid-July and has burned through huge swaths of the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades. However, fire officials said the rain is drying fast and vegetation is becoming more flammable. The second-largest fire in California history has burned 1,500 square miles (3,885 square kilometers) of land and more than 1,300 homes and other buildings. It was 65% contained.

The death toll from the factory fire at Rupganj, Narayanganj jumped to 52 as firefighters started tallying fatalities in the massive blaze. “At least 49 bodies have been recovered from the debris of the building during the search operation,” said Abdullah Al Arefin, deputy assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence in Narayanganj district. Earlier, 3 deaths from the accident were confirmed by the authorities of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) and US Bangla Medical College and Hospital Rupganj. With the fresh ones, the death toll from the fire touched 52, said the UNB correspondent in Narayanganj. Read: 6 of family hurt in Chattogram as cylinder leak causes fire The massive fire that swept through the six-storey building housing a juice factory of Hashem Foods Ltd at Bhulta Karnagop in Rupganj, Narayanganj broke out at 5 pm on Thursday.

The death toll from Sunday's Moghbazar building blast rose to nine as one more person succumbed to his burn injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) early on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Imran Hossain, 25, an employee of Bengal Meat, and son of Abdul Mujib Bhuiya of Sadar upazila in Tangail district. Read:Moghbazar blast: Another body found in debris; death toll stands at 8 Imran sustained 90 percent burns in the explosion on June 27 and since then he had been undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery. He breathed his last around 6am on Wednesday, said Bachchu Mia, inspector of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital police outpost. On Tuesday, firefighters pulled out the body of a 65-year-old security guard from the debris of a three-storey building where the deadly blast occurred. The body of security guard Harun-ur-Rashid was recovered around 3.30 pm, the deputy director (operations) of Fire Service and Civil Defence, Debashish Bardhan, had said. Earlier that day, police lodged a case against unidentified persons for causing death due to negligence in connection with the blast. Read:Moghbazar blast: Police file case against unknown persons An FIR in the case was filed at the Ramna police station on a complaint by sub-inspector Rezzaul Karim, Officer-in-charge Monirul Islam told UNB. Eight people were killed and more than 66 others injured after a powerful explosion ripped through a building near Moghbazar Wireless Gate on Sunday evening. The next day, police formed a seven-member committee to investigate the blast. Additional police commissioner of Counter Terrorism and Transnationals Crime (CTTC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) will head the committee, the Bangladesh Police Headquarters said in a release on Monday. The committee has been asked to investigate the explosion and recommend prevention of such incidents in future.  It will also coordinate with the committee formed by the Fire Service and Civil Defence, said the release. Read:Police announce committee to probe the Moghbazar explosion Earlier that day, Brig. Gen. Md Sazzad Hussain, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said that they had formed a five-member committee to investigate the explosion. Both the committees have seven working days to submit their reports.