The death toll in Thursday’s horrific fire that engulfed the LDAPlaza on Edgerton Road climbed to 28 on Friday, as rescue officials continued sifting through the charred building in search of the missing and dead.
The angry fire that erupted at about 11am on Thursday was put out after 20 hours early on Friday morning, and left charred remains of those attempting to flee their tragic fate atop an air conditioning unit outside the building.
Families of the missing victims waited impatiently outside the building as fire fighters and rescue workers waited for the building to “cool down” before they resumed operations.
After continued delays, some desperate relatives tried to barge into the building themselves to bring out the remains. Families were visibly frustrated as people were still being reported as missing and authorities had provided little or no information.
Nearly 25 bodies are expected to be inside the building, but rescuers claimed that the chances of finding anyone alive were few.
Authorities and officials remained missing at large, adding to the frustration of those waiting in the heat to hear news about missing relatives.
Initial reports suggested that the fire erupted on the seventh floor and might have started due to a short circuit. Twenty six people were rescued from the fire in total.
Records destroyed
The fire has been deemed “mysterious” as it was reported to fire services 40 minutes after it first erupted. The fire had already burnt a number of offices on the floors where it started by the time it was reported.
The floors that have been destroyed consisted mainly of offices related to finance and audit operations. Original records of projects such as Tajpur, BahriaTown and other major projects were being kept in the offices.
