Dhaka, Nov. 10 -- When the fire broke out, at least 12 students were sleeping on the second floor of the five-story Jamia Ashrafia Madrasa building in Narayanganj's Fatullah. More than 100 other students were asleep on the top three floors of the building. Two more residential buildings at the madrasa - one six stories tall, the other seven- were next door. If the blaze had spread to another building, the situation may have been terrible.

Despite the potential scale of the disaster, this large residential madrasa had no fire safety measures in place. There wasn't even a fire extinguisher to put out the flames.

Kanchpur Model Fire Station Senior Station Officer Jahangir Alam said, "We did not see any fire safety measures anywhere in the ...