The BUET team went inside to inspect the building in Rupsi at around 8:30am on Thursday (August 29), said Professor Rakib Ahsan of the civil engineering department.
Rakib said that parts of the roof of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors caved in on the 2nd floor. Since the building can collapse at any moment, the professor suggested searching only the ground floor.
The rescue operations were called off for the time being around 11:30am.
Fire is still burning in several places on the ground floor but there is no danger of it spreading further, said fire service’s deputy assistant director Abdul Mannan. They carried out a rescue operation earlier.
Gazi Tire Factory, owned by former Awami League minister Golam Dastagir Gazi, was set on fire on the night of August 25.
Locals say hundreds of people barged into the five-storey factory on Sunday night and looted it. Around 9pm, miscreants set fire to the ground floor. As the fire gradually spread to other floors, many jumped off the first and second floors but many others remained trapped.
Locals claim that at least 400 people were inside the building when the fire broke out.
