'Find the children, their mother is crying': Korail fire leaves trail of fear, loss and desperate searches
In the smoke-filled alleys, a man named Md Monir was heard shouting desperately, “Find the children, their mother is crying!” as two children were reportedly missing following the chaos caused by the devastating fire.
As a massive fire ripped through the Korail slum in Dhaka's Mohakhali-Gulshan area this evening (25 November), panic and chaos spread faster than the flames themselves.
In the smoke-filled alleys, a man named Md Monir was heard shouting desperately, "Find the children, their mother is crying!" as two children were reportedly missing following the chaos caused by the devastating fire.
Monir, a physically challenged man, said he survived only because his son Hridoy carried him out moments before the fire swallowed their slum. Sitting on the roadside, Monir tried to recall how fires had shaped his entire life.
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Speaking to The Business Standard, he said, "I have faced at least 20 fires in the 25 years I've lived here. Last year we faced three incidents alone. And in one such fire, I narrowly escaped. Only Allah can save us nothing else."
Monir's life has been one of survival long before Korail. "I was born a thyroid patient. My mother died when I was young. My grandmother raised me," he said.
He first arrived in Dhaka in 1985. "We lived in Shaheenbag then — that was a slum too. We were evicted in 2001. The year I got married. That same year, we moved to Korail. Since then, fire has become part of our lives."
Looking toward the blaze, Monir said, "I don't know if my home will survive this time."
Not far from Monir, another victim, Marium, along with her young son, struggled to pull a freezer across the debris-strewn road, the only item she managed to save from her burning home.
"We couldn't save anything else," said Marium, who has lived in Korail for the last 15 years. "The only thing we could bring out of the slum is the freezer. Everything else is already engulfed."
Around 5:22pm, a massive fire broke out at the slum.
According to the Fire Service and Civil Defence, the blaze quickly intensified, moving from Korail's western blocks toward the densely packed Bowbazar area on the eastern side.
"The fire is spiralling out of control," officials said.
A total of 19 fire units were deployed, but the narrow lanes and thousands of makeshift homes made firefighting extremely difficult.
While no casualties have been reported so far, hundreds of homes have been reduced to ashes.
