Thousands left homeless by fire in Bangladesh shantytown in Dhaka

According to authorities, thousands of people are homeless after a fire broke out in a densely populated and impoverished area of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka.

A day after the ferocious fire at the Korail shantytown broke out, no casualties were reported on Wednesday. It took 16 hours to extinguish the fire, which broke out on Tuesday evening, according to Rashed Bin Khalid, a fire department officer.

About 1,500 ramshackle homes were burned or damaged in the blaze, according to Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, the director of the fire service. Overnight, flames engulfed the area, leaving a thick cloud of heavy smoke.

More than 65 hectares (160 acres) of land are inhabited by about 60 000 families, many of whom are climate refugees.

The area is encircled by densely populated Gulshan and Banani neighborhoods in Dhaka, and it is dotted with high-rise apartment and office complexes.

As they searched through the debris on Wednesday, homeowners who lost their homes were desperate to retrieve their belongings. Firefighters claimed that the narrow alleyways prevented them from getting there.

In hundreds of shantytowns in Bangladesh’s city of Dhaka, which has a population of 10.2 million as of 2024, people from rural Bangladesh are forced to leave their homes and work.