A fire spews out from a gas pipe punctured allegedly by workers installing optical fibre cables opposite the police box in the capital's Farmgate around 6:30pm yesterday. Photo: Star

A massive fire burst out in the middle of the road opposite the police box in the capital's Farmgate yesterday evening after a central gas pipe was punctured allegedly by workers installing optical fibre cables.
The fire in Farmgate raged for around 15 minutes, reaching heights of 60 feet, halting traffic movement and prompting commuters to flee in panic till it was doused at 6:40pm.
Gas connections to adjacent areas including Monipuri Para, Raja Bazar, Tejturi Bazar, Karwan Bazar, Bangla Motor, Shatrasta and Shahbagh had been cut off till filing of this report around 1:00am as engineers of Titas made desperate attempts to fix the leak.
“We will try to fix the rupture by tonight,” Robiul Islam, manager, Emergency Gas Control Section, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, told The Daily Star.
Meanwhile, another fire gutted seven makeshift houses in a Bihari camp in the capital's Mirpur 11 after erupting from, as firefighters presume, an electric short-circuit around 9:45pm. Firefighters doused the flames within 45 minutes.