It all began with the daft idea of commercialising residential areas. Banani literally went from being shaded greenery to monstrous obscenities of commercial buildings built almost leaning against each other. Buildings were built deviating from submitted plans with the inspection routine dealt with by greasing a few palms no doubt. The tragedy of F R Tower that claimed thirty-five lives came within a month of the Chawk Bazar devastation that had resulted in seventy persons losing their lives and was a repeat rundown of no proper fire exits, stairs that are unbecoming of a twenty-two storeyed building and worse the so called fire doors conveniently locked.
The tower is just one in a row that according to Mayor Atiqul Islam, needs to be inspected and recertified by the appropriate bodies. Had it not been for the thoroughness with which the Fire Brigade went about their jobs the death toll might have risen further. But it took Airforce helicopters as well as elongated fire fighting platforms to bring some of those stranded off the roof top and the building itself. Twice in quick succession the brigade has now addressed disaster with utmost professionalism hamstrung as they were by the lack of modern fire-fighting equipment especially the cranes that can only reach up to the tenth floor.
According to brigade officials, F R Tower clearly violated the building code constructing more floors than were sanctioned and had no provision whatsoever for emergency fire fighting equipment. One wonders how and why the businesses located in the building continued conducting business without a thought to safety and security. There have been enough disasters in the Garments industry to learn from and yet this aspect never features in any profit and loss account.
As always a probe committee will sift through whatever remains of the floors that the fire engulfed and apportion responsibilities. The one for Chawk Bazar is yet to submit its report. The media will be full of follow-up stories of the human tragedy to have struck and with a quiet subtlety the matter will be forgotten. The only silver lining amidst the gloom is Mayor Atiq's raising of the issue of inspecting all commercial buildings to check that the building codes have been followed and ordering of fire extinguishing equipment in place immediately. That beyond the glittering exteriors lies too many holes is obvious to the passes-by. Most of the buildings have staircases that are either blocked with a variety of material or simply kept under lock and key. The exhaust systems are mostly clogged due to lack of servicing leaving the shattered windows the only means of allowing the stranglehold of smoke to escape. Most of the victims admitted to hospitals were subjected to treatment for inhaling the smoke that billowed out during the nearly five-hour battle to contain and dowse the fire.
F R Tower owners must be taken to task for the missing aspects of the building code and appropriately fined so that others sit up and take note. In any case commercial establishments throughout the Kemal Ataturk Avenue must sit up and check the fire-fighting capability of their tenancy whether through ownership or rental. Buildings housing university campuses likewise have a duty to their students and fire drills with the Fire Brigade in the loop must be regular features. Trade licence renewal process should incorporate adequate fire-fighting equipment for all, be it small or large offices. For now the thoughts must also be on helping the affected restart their businesses. They will need working capital either through a grant or a loan and those with insurance must be reimbursed quickly rather than a long process. Those dealing in consumer goods must be helped to prepare for the Bangla New year and Eid shopping that has begun.
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