Shopping mall fire kills seven in Dhaka

Per bdnews24.com, at least seven people died and 17 were injured after a fire broke out on the upper floors of Bangladesh's largest shopping mall, Bashundhara City, on Friday afternoon in Dhaka.

Twitter did not break this story, but @junal provided the first tweet, citing bdnews24.com's initial story on it just moments after the blaze began.

@junal (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Fire breaks out at Basundhara City http://ff.im/1umHw



The tweets came in rapidly after that, providing context from the capital city.

@mza069 (Dhaka, Bangladesh): south asia's largest shopping mall basundhara city is on fire.


@enamul (Dhaka, Bangladesh): My God! Bashundhara City is set on fire. It's flaming right now. May Allah save us!



@munim (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Bashundhara City Shopping Complex on serious fire from 18th floor and coming downwards. Shopping complex is still safe


Several twitterers noted that firefighters had trouble reaching the blaze, as their ladder did not go high enough. Helicopters were used to assist in the rescue.

@mhmbd (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Now they have the capacity to control fire up to 14th floor only. so they need helicoptor supported system as soon as possible


@mttwit (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Govt gives permission to make high-rise but don't improve the fire-service to reach those height! Poor they trying to climb 250' by ladders

Shopping mall fire kills seven in Dhaka