Deadly fires: The bane of Dhaka  

Few cities, even the poorer or developing ones, witness so many fire incidents like Dhaka. At least two or three big and disastrous blazes occur in the city every year. Mid-scale and small fires are normal incidents in the capital, one of the most densely populated in the world. Apart from loss of hundreds of lives in the last 10 years, these fires damaged properties worth millions of taka.

As has been seen normally, these fires mainly break out in the slum areas. But vibrant business centres are also not spared. Suspected to be caused by electric short-circuits, worn-out wires and negligence in handling fires and combustible objects, these fires quite often have assumed the proportions of conflagrations. In this unmanageably growing metropolis, these massive fires have mostly occurred in apartment-cum-shopping complexes, markets selling chemical products or clothes and many types of dry items. Bangabazar, Nimtoli and Chawkbazar markets in Old Dhaka witnessed more than one deadly blaze in the last one-and-half decades.

A troubling aspect of these fires is probe committees are formed after every blaze. But the findings of few of the probes see the light. It is the investigative journalists who doggedly remain engaged in identifying the real cause of a massive fire. Those range from trading in illegally stored combustible items, remaining oblivious to the imperative of checking regularly the suspected sources of fire, the effectiveness of fire exits, fire extinguishers etc. The latter two warrant the highest focus on the part of the owners of high-rise shopping centres and apartment buildings.

After every calamitous fire, the need for regular fire drills occupies a prime place in discussions on fighting the menace of urban fires. The topic eventually dies away and remains swept under the carpet until another great fire prompts a rude awakening among the city dwellers.

The incidents of killer and destructive blazes have long emerged as a common feature in Dhaka. Of all areas, the ever-sprawling slums have been singled out as the most vulnerable to blazes. In the cases of slum fires, conspiracy theorists point to nasty machinations resorted to by gangs of land grabbers. Their objective is alleged to be construction of structures in the places cleared of slums. However, few concrete proofs have yet to be supplied in favour of these claims of conspiracies.

A sector which remains ever vulnerable to fire incidents is the one dealing with readymade garment (RMG) manufacture. A number of disastrous RMG unit fires have killed scores of female garment workers in the capital in the recent times. Thanks to these fires, myriad types of irregularities concerning worker-safety and emergency measures to save lives became public.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence Department of the country has for decades been crippled with a number of drawbacks. Apart from dearth of elementary equipment to fight fires, lack of sufficiently trained personnel plagues the sector. Shining fire brigade vehicles with deafening sirens are not enough to ensure safety for this fire-prone city.

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