Deaths in worst fire incident
Saturday, 5 June 2010
IN less than 48 hours time from the Begunbari building collapse that claimed more than 24 lives, yet another tragedy of far greater magnitude struck the capital city Thursday night. More than 116, mostly women and children, were charred to death and 200 others received severe burn injuries in the country's worst ever fire incident involving eight residential buildings and more than 20 shops at the densely populated Nawab Katra and Nimtali of the old part of the city. The origin of the fire remains a mystery. Some residents of the locality claimed the fire had originated from the power transformer explosion while others said it started from a place storing chemicals. The source of the fire matters little now since the disaster has completely devastated many families, in terms of life and property.
Locals have alleged that the firefighters arrived at the scene far too late, an allegation very common in case of fire incidents. But the fire officials said the approach road was so narrow that it took a lot of time to bring the vehicles to the place of occurrence and engage them in bringing the fire under control. There is truth in the statement of the firefighters since most roads and alleys in the old part of the Dhaka are very narrow and found to be not wide enough for the movement of even manually driven vehicles. Besides, residential buildings and marketplaces have been built ignoring the official construction rules. Even the staircases and main exits of some of these buildings are so narrow that two people cannot move in or out of the same at a time. What is worse is that small manufacturing units using highly inflammable chemicals are housed in many of these buildings. Actually, most areas of the old city are ideal death traps in case of fire incidents.
Responding to the crisis, the government is doing its best within the available means to help the victims of the tragedy as far as possible. It has declared today (Saturday) the national mourning day and appealed to the people to pray for the souls of the fire victims in mosques and other places of worship. But the government's responsibility does not end with that. It has to come up with plans to stop recurrence of similar incidents and develop further the damage control mechanism. There is no denying that the government at this stage can hardly change the road networks or enforce the building codes for the existing buildings in the old city. But it should make the residents living in the congested areas having narrow roads, lanes and by-lanes adequately aware of the dangers of fire incidents. More importantly, all shops using the inflammable chemicals and raw materials or places storing the same must be removed immediately from the residential areas to ensure physical safety and security of the people living there.
The government does also to need to enhance further the efficiency and effectiveness of the fire department. There has been some improvement as far as logistics are concerned in recent years but that is not adequate to meet the rising incidents of building collapse or fire in Dhaka city. The situation calls for equipping the firefighters with modern and sophisticated gadgets and the government must not falter in providing those. On its part, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) should address yet another problem that the fire brigade vans and ambulances face very often during emergencies. In many cases, they get stuck up on roads that on most occasions remain clogged with vehicles. The traffic police virtually do nothing to facilitate unhindered movement of these vehicles. It's not the DMP alone, all other agencies responsible for ensuring safety and security of the Dhaka residents do need to be extra-vigilant since an over-populated city has become more accident-prone these days.
Locals have alleged that the firefighters arrived at the scene far too late, an allegation very common in case of fire incidents. But the fire officials said the approach road was so narrow that it took a lot of time to bring the vehicles to the place of occurrence and engage them in bringing the fire under control. There is truth in the statement of the firefighters since most roads and alleys in the old part of the Dhaka are very narrow and found to be not wide enough for the movement of even manually driven vehicles. Besides, residential buildings and marketplaces have been built ignoring the official construction rules. Even the staircases and main exits of some of these buildings are so narrow that two people cannot move in or out of the same at a time. What is worse is that small manufacturing units using highly inflammable chemicals are housed in many of these buildings. Actually, most areas of the old city are ideal death traps in case of fire incidents.
Responding to the crisis, the government is doing its best within the available means to help the victims of the tragedy as far as possible. It has declared today (Saturday) the national mourning day and appealed to the people to pray for the souls of the fire victims in mosques and other places of worship. But the government's responsibility does not end with that. It has to come up with plans to stop recurrence of similar incidents and develop further the damage control mechanism. There is no denying that the government at this stage can hardly change the road networks or enforce the building codes for the existing buildings in the old city. But it should make the residents living in the congested areas having narrow roads, lanes and by-lanes adequately aware of the dangers of fire incidents. More importantly, all shops using the inflammable chemicals and raw materials or places storing the same must be removed immediately from the residential areas to ensure physical safety and security of the people living there.
The government does also to need to enhance further the efficiency and effectiveness of the fire department. There has been some improvement as far as logistics are concerned in recent years but that is not adequate to meet the rising incidents of building collapse or fire in Dhaka city. The situation calls for equipping the firefighters with modern and sophisticated gadgets and the government must not falter in providing those. On its part, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) should address yet another problem that the fire brigade vans and ambulances face very often during emergencies. In many cases, they get stuck up on roads that on most occasions remain clogged with vehicles. The traffic police virtually do nothing to facilitate unhindered movement of these vehicles. It's not the DMP alone, all other agencies responsible for ensuring safety and security of the Dhaka residents do need to be extra-vigilant since an over-populated city has become more accident-prone these days.