At least seven people were injured in an explosion at the city's Mirpur yesterday evening.

Police suspect that the explosion occurred due to a gas leakage.

Of the seven, three people-- Atiqullah, 38, his nephew Forkan Ahmed, 23, and Kaiser Uddin, 41-- suffered 30 percent burns. They were admitted to the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Atiqullah said the explosion took place on the first floor of a four-storey building at Mirpur-2 when they switched on the lights of a room that has been closed for a while.

On that small section of the floor was a beauty parlour which was closed three months ago. Two months ago Atiqullah rented the section to use it as an office of the Samannay Officers' Bahumukhi Samabai Samiti but the office did not open that time.

Yesterday, when they switched on the lights, the explosion occurred and soon fire engulfed the area. The three managed to come out with burn injuries. The next flat that housed a small garment factory was heavily damaged by the explosion.

Parts of bricks and window panes of the building injured four construction workers who were at an adjacent building.

"The explosion caused an earthquake-like situation around the building," said neighbour Mamtaj Begum. The shaking lasted for around 10 seconds damaging windows and furniture of two floors of the building.

Eight people died early yesterday when a raging fire swept through five rooms of a roof-top shed of a garment-dyeing factory.

Deputy Commissioner Mohibul Haque of Dhaka said the fire intensified after it came in contact with dyeing chemicals stored in the shed of the four-storey Sonargaon Fancy Printing and Dyeing Ltd at Shyampur of Kadamtoli.

Dhaka, Oct 28 (bdnews24.com) — A mobile court has fined two warehouses in Old Dhaka for storing flammable chemicals, hours after an explosion in the same area.

Mohammad Asad, owner of a warehouse at Bangshal, was fined Tk 400,000 on Thursday for storing flammable chemicals without a fire certificate.

Locals said the area was covered with smoke after the explosion in the warehouse.

They brought out a number processions immediately following the explosion demanding eviction of chemical warehouses from the area.

Chemical warehouse once again caused another fire incident in the city's densely populated Bangshal area Thursday, firefighters said.

Fire Brigade`s deputy director Abdur Rashid said the fire originated at about 11:55am from the ground floor of a three-storey building at 4/1 Gobinda Das Lane, burning down the chemical factory.

"Flammable chemicals were kept at the ground floor," he said, adding that chemical reaction is detected as a cause of the fire incident in the preliminary inspection.

He, however, said no one was injured in the incident as their several units rushed to the spot and doused the blaze after half an hour of frantic efforts with the help of police and locals.

A devastating fire in a chemical warehouse once again claimed seven valuable lives and injured several others at Jatrabari in the capital Wednesday, the police and firefighters said.

Firefighters said the blaze originated at the chemical warehouse which was used in making shoe named Baby Solution Traders at 319 South Jatrabari at about 5:00pm and soon engulfed the whole warehouse.

"We've recovered seven bodies from inside the burnt chemical warehouse and rescued several people injured in the fire," Fire Service Deputy Director Abdur Rashid told the FE, adding most of the deceased were employees of the inflammable chemical warehouse.

At least 72 people were killed in a devastating fire here in the Bangladesh capital on Thursday night, officials said. The fire broke out in a chemical factory in the old Dhaka city at about 9.20 pm local time. It spread to four or five houses in the congested residential area, trapping hundreds of residents, Xinhua reported. Fire-fighters rushed to the spot and after frantic efforts managed to bring the fire under control. The injured have been admitted at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. According to witnesses, there was an explosion in an electrical transformer, which later caught fire and spread to nearby residential and commercial buildings.72 killed in Dhaka fire- Hindustan Times