Manama: Three Bangladeshi workers died after a fire broke out in a dilapidated residential building in Manama. The same building was the scene of a fire last year that killed 13 Bangladeshis.
The fire on Friday, which broke out at 2:38am, gutted the two-storey building in the Mukharqa neighbourhood in the capital.
The three male victims reportedly died from smoke inhalation in their sleep.
Mohidul Islam, the first secretary of the Bangladesh embassy in Manama, identified the two victims as Mosharraf Hossain and Abu Jalal. The third victim could not be immediately identified, the diplomat told Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star.
The three men did not reportedly have signs of burns or other injury, indicating they died from smoke inhalation.
One more Bangladeshis was injured and had to be taken to a local hospital. He was later discharged.
“The operations room received at 2:38 am a call reporting the fire and the civil defence teams reached at 2:42am,” the General Director of Civil Defence said in a statement on the ministry’s
Twitter account announcing the tragedy. “They put out the fire before it spread to neighbouring buildings. The bodies were removed from the scene.”
He added that the fire was caused by safety negligence and that it destroyed the first floor of the building.
The Interior Ministry has ordered a full investigation into the incident.
The building where the fire occurred is located in the same area where a fire on January 11 last year killed 13 Bangladeshis in one of Bahrain's deadliest tragedies.
The tragedy shocked the nation and prompted the authorities to push for the demolition of the building that illegally housed a large number of Asian labourers looking for cheap accommodation.
Several people were charged for their negligence.
