Photo taken on March 16, 2017 shows firemen spraying water in the slum in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh. A devastating fire swept through one of the largest slums in Bangladesh capital Dhaka early Thursday, destroying hundreds of homes and leaving thousands of people homeless. (Xinhua/Mohammad Manowar Kamal)
DHAKA, March 16 (Xinhua) -- A devastating fire swept through one of the largest slums in Bangladesh capital Dhaka early Thursday, destroying hundreds of homes and leaving thousands of people homeless.
No casulties have so far been reported.
The slum, called Korail-Boubajar, is a densely populated slum holding hundreds of thousands of poor residents.
The affected slum dwellers were seen Thursday lamenting in open sky as most of them left behind all valuables to save their life.
Slum-dwellers have been searching their valuables in burnt houses after the fire.
18 fire fighting units rushed to the spot at about 2:00 a.m. local time to fight the flames in the slum, which with a population of about 300,000 is one of the largest slums in the city.
The firefighters brought the blaze under control at about 7:00 a.m. local time, said a firefighter who did not like to be named.
He said the exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.
According to the firefighter, about 400 to 500 homes made of scrap sheet iron, plastic and cardboard were destroyed fully or partially in the devastating fire.
In December last year some 250 to 300 shanties were burnt in a gruesome fire accident in the slum.
Fires are common in Bangladeshi slums where hundreds of thousands of people are crammed in shacks along rail and waterways.
Fires leave thousands of people homeless every year in Dhaka alone.
In 2008, a big fire engulfed around 2,000 houses in a slum area and left over 10,000 people homeless.
