Most of the buildings at the Bangladesh Secretariat, the nerve centre of the country’s administration, have had their power supply disconnected after a massive fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday.
The electricity connection had not been restored as of 1:15pm on Thursday.
Official work was disrupted as there was no electricity for almost ten hours. Staff and officers were seen entering the Secretariat but leaving again as their work was interrupted.
However, official work was still ongoing in the few buildings which still have power, officials said.
Staff and officers were coming out through gate No. 5.
Some people could enter the Secretariat premises, but could not enter the rooms inside. The power was out but some places were using generators to supply electricity.
“A generator is turned on inside the Ministry of Information. They have an electricity connection and we held a meeting there,” said Ministry of Information and Broadcasting officer Hridoy Mahmud Chayan.
“Our building did not catch on fire, but the entire premises are under the control of the law enforcement agencies. We waited for a long time and then left. There’s no electricity inside,” a member of the Ministry of Shipping staff said.
An official of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development said: “Most parts of our building were burnt. There’s no electricity inside. A burning smell fills the premises, while official work is halted. We waited for some time and then left.”
Building No. 7 of the Secretariat, which caught on fire early on Thursday morning, houses several important offices on its 10 floors. Even when the head of government works from the Secretariat, they use an office in this building.
The offices of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, Road Transport and Highways Division, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Local Government Division, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Posts and Telecommunications Division and the Ministry of Youth and Sports are also located in the nine-storey bloc.
Police and members of other law enforcement agencies are on alert and positioned at all five gates leading into the Secretariat.
Anyone wanting to enter the premises is being questioned. No one has been allowed inside the building damaged in the fire.
Nearly 10 hours after it first sparked, the fire at Building No. 7 of the Secretariat – the nerve centre of Bangladesh’s administration – was extinguished completely.
The combined effort of 19 firefighting units was able to bring the flames under control around 8:05am on Thursday, but it took until 11:45am for them to be put out, according to Fire Service official Talha Bin Jashim.
