Chandpur witnesses 538 fire incidents in 16 months

CHANDPUR, May 04: A staggeringly high number of fire incidents took place in Chandpur district in the past 16 months, causing many deaths and extensive damage to properties.
Statistics show a total of 538 fire incidents occurred in Chandpur Sadar and seven other upazilas of the district during the period while 343 of the incidents took place in 2022 only.
In the past four months of the current year (2023), the district saw 195 fire incidents which caused loss of valuables and properties estimated to be of Tk35 million.
Sources at the fire stations said among the incidents, 158 occurred in residential houses, 79 in shopping malls, shops and rural haats and bazars, 21 in cowsheds, three in hospitals, two in launches and one in jute warehouse, while 41 originated from ovens, 39 from cigarette butts, 10 from faulty gas lines and gas cylinder blasts.
Contacted, Md Shahidul Islam, assistant deputy director of Chandpur Fire Service and Civil Defence, confirmed the statistics.
He said, "There are no adequate fire safety measures to extinguish flames in Chandpur district town and elsewhere in the district and fire stations have identified two red zones of fire incidents in the district town''.
Those two are century-old Pal Bazar and Chandpur Railway Hawkers Market, he added.
According to the Chandpur District Fire Station office, there are one river fire station and two fire stations in the district town and seven fire stations in seven upazilas- one in each upazila- of the district to control the fire.
Extinguishing fire and subsequent rescue efforts are hampered due to inadequate number of firefighters as a total of 37 posts of firefighters, seven of drivers and four of station officers have been lying vacant for long.
Besides, many newly-built high-rise buildings in the town lack fire safety measures, which can cause high causalities in case of a fire.

maayerbadhon@gmail.com