The Jatiya Sangsad unanimously adopts a condolence motion expressing profound grief over the victims of Chawkbazar inferno that claimed 67 lives on Wednesday at Churihatta area of Old Dhaka.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has requested the parents or children of those still missing following the Chawkbazar fire to provide their DNA samples to swiftly identify the unknown bodies.

Chemicals are being shifted from Haji Wahed Mansion in Churihatta of Dhaka’s Chawkbazar for the second consecutive day.

A footage obtained by The Daily Star shows the exact moment when the fire broke out at Chawkbazar in Old Dhaka. As the clock strikes 10:32pm, the fire rips through the premises completely destroying the front portion of the hotel. Bricks and bottles fall inside, and a portion of the wall caves in as mayhem ensues.

Their family was a happy one -- mother and father with their two healthy children. On Wednesday night, the brutal fire that blazed through Chawkbazar reduced their perfect family of four to just one, while the rest looked on from behind a photo frame that managed to survive the hellish flames.

As the call for relocating the warehouses of chemicals and inflammable goods from Old Dhaka gets louder, an industries ministry probe committee claimed that there was no chemical factory or warehouse at the scene of Wednesday's devastating fire in Chawkbazar.

The grief for the loss of at least 67 lives in the chemical-fuelled Chawkbazar blaze is giving way to the fury against chemical factories and warehouses in Old Dhaka with the demand for their removal from the area getting louder.

After an inferno claimed 124 lives in Old Dhaka's Nimtoli in 2010, a monument was built at that place. The structure, named “Nimtoli Tragedy”, bears many inscriptions. One of them says it was built to raise awareness on fire and the dangers of storing chemicals in residential buildings.

Fire tragedies are frequent in Bangladesh and often cause high casualties, but no one has ever been punished for their role in any fire incidents.

The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed his condolences to the president, the government and the people Bangladesh for the loss of lives and destructions in the Chawkbazar inferno.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday regretted that chemical warehouses could not be relocated from Old Dhaka due to owners' reluctance.

Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud says Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s statement that ‘the Chawlkbazar fire incident occurred due to absence of democracy’ prompted to look into whether the BNP perpetrated any act of sabotage concerning the tragic incident.

Blaming immediate past industries minister Amir Hossain Amu, Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal General Secretary Dilip Barua says the relocation of process of chemical godowns from the old town would have been easy, had he (Amu) taken the issue seriously.

The fire that left 67 people dead in Old Dhaka originated from a blast of a private car’s gas cylinder, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon says quoting police.

There is a "standing directive" from the prime minister to remove all chemical establishments from Old Dhaka immediately, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader says.

But one thing is sure, chemicals and flammable objects had fed the flames that almost gutted Haji Wahed Mansion and partly damaged three other adjoining buildings on Wednesday night, causing the fire to last longer, said exerts and members of a probe committee.

With dazed eyes on a blank face, five-year-old Sanin lay nestled in the arms of her father Suman, who was standing just yards off the Dhaka Medical College morgue yesterday.

The old town blaze that claimed at least 67 lives could have been even more devastating had the flames came into contact with the huge stockpile of chemicals in the basement of Haji Wahed Mansion.

A pall of gloom has descended on many villages of Noakhali as 13 of the 67 victims in Chawkbazar fire already identified hailed from the district.

The devastating fire in Chawkbazar is the outcome of a collective failure of the authorities concerned.