Fire tragedies

At least six people were burnt to death as fire gutted a building housing a restaurant and a plastic toy warehouse in Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area on Monday afternoon. The victims were all restaurant workers, who had been sleeping after finishing their night shift in a makeshift wooden structure inside the restaurant in Chawkbazar’s Kamalbagh area. Fires in the old quarters old quarters of the city occur with alarming frequency and apparently little is being done to check the unwelcome phenomenon. 

Learning from tragedies seems to alien to our culture. The old town remains as unsafe as ever for the inhabitants. Localities like Nabab Katra, Bangshal, Siddique Bazar, Sat Rowza, Babu Bazar and Armanitola still have factories with flammable objects stored on their ground floors.  Devastating blazes are still a common occurrence in a country whose fire safety record often falls short of even the most basic requirements.

The horrific inferno at the Nimtoli area in the old quarters of the city sent shockwaves throughout the country on June 2, 2010. On that day fire claimed at least 123 lives and left hundreds injured. Property worth crores of taka was burnt to ashes. Even after 12 years many people of the locality are yet to recover from the after effects of the tragedy. The cause of the fire was clear. A residential building was used to store highly flammable chemicals. The chemicals caught fire leading to the devastation.
Unfortunately people have apparently learnt little from the disaster. In the immediate aftermath of Nimtoli inferno experts, NGOs and common people raised a logical demand that storage of such potential deadly substances in residential areas should be banned. The government for once acted promptly and fixed a cut-off date asking the traders to shift the warehouses from the area. Unfortunately 12 years have gone by and media reports suggest that the chemical traders are still doing business in the locality. Such stark apathy for the invaluable human lives is hard to find anywhere in the world.

The fire occurrence dilemma in Bangladesh was never addressed realistically. The exception is the lone RMG sector that radically transformed in the face of mounting national and international pressure. In particular, regarding last Sunday’s fire a common pattern that has been observed in marketplace fires over the past decade,  is this that the large-scale disasters always struck either when the market is empty, shutdown on holidays or in the wee hours when they are closed. So the timing of disaster is in urgent need of prompt and thorough investigations.
To reduce the number of fire incidents, the authorities have to significantly change their attitudes towards such disasters. Rajuk, which is responsible for implementing building codes in Dhaka, has to be equipped with adequate and quality human resources. It also has to be held accountable for failing to ensure that all buildings adhere to fire safety regulations. The authorities must strictly enforce fire safety standards in all buildings, as well as launch awareness and training campaigns to make sure that people are aware of what to do in case of any fire emergencies. Moreover, including fire safety issues in the national curricula could also be a good idea.

Similar to the RMG sector, the authorities must introduce mandatory compliance rules for other factories, markets and shop owners.

They should be instructed to follow strict safety and security guidelines. All our markets and factories should be equipped with a voluntary group of fire-fighters. Moreover, we must draw lessons in order to thwart potentially dangerous but preventable fire disasters.  A disaster is a blessing in disguise only, when we succeed in taking valuable lessons from it. Otherwise, it is just another event of unfortunate and shocking consequences. Regular inspections, basic safety measures and globally recognised fire prevention standards are the least they should be able to expect, because lives cannot be sacrificed for the sake of turning a quick profit.