From blazes to infernos

First, the fire originating from a chemical warehouse at Shialbari, Mirpur on Tuesday last gulped 16 lives in an adjacent four-storey apparel factory to which it spread. Then on Thursday a fire gutted Adams Caps and Textile Ltd housed in a seven-storey building in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ). Before news of the two devastating fires could be stale, yet another colossal fire broke out on Saturday in the cargo village of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) to leave particularly the import section of the storage completely ruined. Now in all three cases, regulatory lapses have been reported. The chemical warehouse was set up illegally and the apparel factory in the CEPZ had no fire security certificate nor did it comply with the building code. Similarly, the cargo village has no fire detection and protection devices that can serve as an early warning system and minimise damage.

Why should the irregularities in industries and factories come to light only after disasters have struck? The Alliance and the Accord, two platforms of apparel business in North America and Europe, proved that measures taken to secure fire safety for apparel factories and compliance with infrastructural regulations yield positive results. But compromise on such critical issues invites disasters as experienced in all three cases. When dealing with sensitive materials like chemicals, the regulatory rules and guidelines have to be fully complied with. After all, chemicals are combustible substances and have the potential of exploding in case of mishandling. In all three cases, violation of the regulatory rules or outright illegal practices has been responsible for the eruption of fire. While there is no provision of chemical warehouses in Mirpur Area, a report claims that many such illegal facilities exist there. Will the authorities take action against such chemical storages before another such disaster strikes?

If the private chemical warehouse is operated illegally, what about the CEPZ apparel factory that may collapse anytime, according to a spokesperson of the Civil Defence and Fire Service there. How could the factory operate in violation of the building code and without obtaining the fire security certificate from the authorities concerned? Finally, it is unimaginable that chemicals imported by factories and industries, including the readymade garment, are stored with other valuable raw materials without a fire detection-protection system.

All these testify to the authorities' negligence or ignorance ---a clear evidence of symptoms of underdevelopment. They and the managements have learnt nothing from the initiatives the Alliance and the Accord took to fix the problem of RMG factories' vulnerability to collapse and fires like those of Savar's Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashion Factory. The two apparel platforms secured buildings' structural vulnerability through retro-fitting. They also introduced fire safety measures to garment factories and before leaving briefed the owners and garment associations about how the factories they could not cover will have to retrofit and introduce fire safety measures. Failure to follow their instructions is likely to invite disaster like the CEPZ one. The factory in CEPZ turned the upper floors into godowns in violation of the safety rules and the fire started there. Thankfully, fire alarm went off and workers could evacuate in time. But in case of similar other cases, workers may not be as lucky. So, the need for regularly monitoring and checking all safety measures is of immense importance.