Should every fire take us by surprise?

Probe committees by separate government bodies, namely, the Civil Aviation ministry, the Internal Resources Division of the finance ministry and Biman Bangladesh Airlines, have, reportedly, been formed to investigate Saturday (October 18)'s fire incident at the import cargo section called, the cargo village, at the Hazrat Shajhalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka. Though the actual damage sustained by the import cargo complex and the materials related to the garment units stored there is yet to be assessed, it is feared that materials worth Tk.10 billion might have been destroyed. This is the third major fire in a week in the country in which, as a matter of strange coincidence, only readymade garment (RMG) factories and materials and equipment used by the apparel industry have been gutted. The first of these fires broke out at Mirpur area of the city on October 14 that started from a chemical warehouse filled with explosive chemicals. The flashover engulfed the adjacent building that housed a garment factory killing at least 16 people and wounding many.

The Chottogram EPZ (CEPZ) conflagration, on the other hand, erupted on Thursday (October 16) afternoon from a warehouse on the 7th floor of a 7-storey building. The warehouse reportedly contained flammable materials including chemicals, medical gowns and towels used by two companies, of which, one was a garments unit, while the other a medical company. So, in each cases of these fires, we see a storage facility of flammable substances, a garment unit or a warehouse of materials for garment factories staying side by side as if waiting for an accident to occur. Now, it is up to the probe bodies to determine if the series of fires were purely stray cases, or they had any connection whatsoever. In any case, the investigation bodies would hopefully find an answer. However, going by previous records, there are no strong reasons to believe that the root cause of the destructive fires could ever be discovered. Even so, this time, one would like to hope that a miracle might happen. So, let us keep our fingers crossed that something useful would come out of those investigations.

Meanwhile, Commerce Adviser to the interim government, Sk Bashir Uddin, while reacting to Dhaka Custom Agents Association (DCAA)'s allegation of delayed response from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Fire Service in the face of HSIA's devastating cargo village blaze, told reporters on Sunday (October 19) that CAA acted within seconds and that 37 units from Fire Service joined efforts to douse the fire. However, terming the destruction of the 'import goods storage' complete and that no import operation could be resumed before reconstruction of the complex, the DCAA urged the authorities concerned to open a temporary cargo storage facility so import activities through HSIA could continue. The Customs Agents' representative also suspected of a plot to cripple the economy by the HSIA fire. No doubt, DCAA's suspicion demands serious attention from the government.

But the commerce adviser's response to the DCAA's allegations and concerns could be different from what all political governments of the past would do under similar circumstances. On the contrary, he was rather defensive, if not in an outright denial mode. However, he assured the companies affected by the HSIA's cargo village blaze of all help from his government.

Whatever the outcome of the probes, the government should at least take adequate measures so that any such future fire or act of sabotage in this highest foreign currency earning sector could be prevented. In case, if any such devastating incident takes place at any industry or sensitive installation despite efforts to prevent it, the Fire Service and Civil Defence, the Army, the Navy, the BGB, the Police, the Ansar should be on guard and act before it is too late.

sfalim.ds@gmail.com