Massive fire engulfs popular clothing market in Bangladesh capital

Hundreds of firefighters and army personnel are working to douse a massive blaze raging through a popular clothing market for cheaper clothes in Dhaka.

The fire started around 6:10 am local time on Tuesday at Bangabazar Market, but no casualties were reported immediately, a local fire services official informed.

Fire officials and shop owners told reporters the clothing market and three adjacent commercial precincts had been almost completely destroyed in the incident.

Another fire service official said they still had no idea on the origins of the blaze. A military spokesperson said an air force helicopter had joined in to support the firefighting operation, with aerial footage from the chopper showing scores of people watching devastating flames rage through the market from a nearby overpass.

Bangabazar Market with roughly 3,000 shops is a popular destination for affordable Western fashion brands, selling clothes that were manufactured in Dhaka's garment factories but couldn't meet export standards.

"I have lost everything," a business owner said, highlighting the perilous condition the massive fire has brought just weeks before Eid, the Muslim festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the biggest religious celebration in Bangladesh.

Several shop owners said they had borrowed thousands of dollars to stock new clothes ahead of the festival.

Thousands of shops, mostly made of tin and wood, were completely destroyed in the fire, Al Jazeera quoted an official at Bangabazar Shop Owners Association as saying. "I am unable to describe the massive loss all of us are incurring," D M Habib said.

Bangabazar's long history of fire hazards shouldn't be undermined. The market witnessed at least six small to medium fire incidents in the past decade, official data shows.

Although a shortage of fire safety arrangements and lax monitoring have often triggered devastating fires in commercial places in Bangladesh, conditions in the huge garment industry there have largely improved over the last decade.