Macabre acts in the name of fire prevention
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Enayet Rasul Bhuiyan writes
The central hub or the nerve centre of the country's government administration at Osmani Gani Road in Dhaka was the scene of man-made panic last Thursday. Suddenly, people were seen running inside the compound of the secretariat from a feeling that one of its buildings had caught fire. For a while, the scene was not much different from panicked visitors at the Bashundhara shopping mall that was partly gutted in the fire last week. A similar situation appeared in the secretariat with smoke billowing out from the upper floors of one of the buildings there. Employees from the buildings were seen in a stampede to rush out and firemen soon arrived at the spot and in a scene reminiscent of fire fighting at the Bashunbdhara mall only about a week ago, they were seen placing ladders and carrying their heavy equipment in an attempt to douse out the fire.
Only much later it was learnt that the firemen were there not responding to a real call for fire but only to rehearse a response to such a call. A small fire was started in a pre planned manner in one of the upper floors of a building as part of the fire service's simulating a scenario of fire for practicing. Even the government employees in that building were not told that it was not a real fire but a drill only. When asked, the firemen told the media that if the civil servants working there were told in advance, then their reactions would be one of unconcern and the firemen would not face a scene they would be confronted with in the case of a genuine fire incident.
But what was the outcome of this fire drill under seemingly live conditions ? From mad rushing in the two affected floors, a number of persons were injured. The blood pressure of many others shot up. Indeed, if someone with a weak heart was stressed to death under these circumstances, then that would not be a surprise.
So, who gave the fire department the rights to keep the persons inside the secretariat uninformed that it was only a drill ? Physical harms to some government servants were actually caused from this weird and reckless decision. And many others suffered mentally from anxieties and fears. The pertinent question is whether anybody has any right or reserves any legality in the manner the fire services authorities acted in relation to this so called rehearsing for a fire. The answer should be obviously in the negative.
As it was, the drill showed up that most of the fire extinguishers kept in the secretariat were long past their active life. Or in other words, the same were useless. When the basic fire prevention tools inside the heart of the government administration remains in such utter state of neglect and ineffectiveness, then it becomes a double surprise as well as an outrageous act to carry out a senseless fire drill there annoying, discomforting and even physically injuring people in the process. Instead of doing such ridiculous things, the fire department should be engaged in activities that really matter.
The main such activity on the part of that department would be acquiring greater capacities against fire situations such as the one that broke out recently in the Bashundhara mall. Special capacities to reach floors of multi-storied buildings well above twelve floors should be acquired. The department should seek and aim to include more personnel for its services and recruitment to that end. It should increase its fire fighting capacities in all conceivable ways apart from bringing all parts of the country under its services. Fire department should be proactive in drawing the attention of the government to its needs. Government on its part should be responsive to these suggestions and promptly. Government should also maintain regular publicity in the media about fire prevention. The publicities should try and imprint in people's minds the ways of self care such as not throwing around lighted objects carelessly, to handle gas stoves with the greater care, to repair worn out electrical lines that cause fires from short circuits, not to keep easily inflammable goods in residential area, etc. The fire department should be urged to carry out fire drills regularly and extensively throughout the country to increase people's awareness about their responsibilities in dealing with fire situations, or, more significantly, what the people ought to be doing on their own as safeguards against fire. Fire exits or stairways and the keeping of functioning fire extinguishers should be made mandatory for all high rise buildings. The fire department should inspect whether the directives in this regard are being followed.
All of the above measures and more, introduced and enforced over a period of time, will contribute a great deal towards fire prevention than the sort of drill that was played out on the secretariat. The implementation of a well conceived plan of fire prevention is necessary because fires lead to very great destruction of scarce resources in this one of the poorest countries, every year. Effective fire prevention will lead to saving of much scarce resources.
The central hub or the nerve centre of the country's government administration at Osmani Gani Road in Dhaka was the scene of man-made panic last Thursday. Suddenly, people were seen running inside the compound of the secretariat from a feeling that one of its buildings had caught fire. For a while, the scene was not much different from panicked visitors at the Bashundhara shopping mall that was partly gutted in the fire last week. A similar situation appeared in the secretariat with smoke billowing out from the upper floors of one of the buildings there. Employees from the buildings were seen in a stampede to rush out and firemen soon arrived at the spot and in a scene reminiscent of fire fighting at the Bashunbdhara mall only about a week ago, they were seen placing ladders and carrying their heavy equipment in an attempt to douse out the fire.
Only much later it was learnt that the firemen were there not responding to a real call for fire but only to rehearse a response to such a call. A small fire was started in a pre planned manner in one of the upper floors of a building as part of the fire service's simulating a scenario of fire for practicing. Even the government employees in that building were not told that it was not a real fire but a drill only. When asked, the firemen told the media that if the civil servants working there were told in advance, then their reactions would be one of unconcern and the firemen would not face a scene they would be confronted with in the case of a genuine fire incident.
But what was the outcome of this fire drill under seemingly live conditions ? From mad rushing in the two affected floors, a number of persons were injured. The blood pressure of many others shot up. Indeed, if someone with a weak heart was stressed to death under these circumstances, then that would not be a surprise.
So, who gave the fire department the rights to keep the persons inside the secretariat uninformed that it was only a drill ? Physical harms to some government servants were actually caused from this weird and reckless decision. And many others suffered mentally from anxieties and fears. The pertinent question is whether anybody has any right or reserves any legality in the manner the fire services authorities acted in relation to this so called rehearsing for a fire. The answer should be obviously in the negative.
As it was, the drill showed up that most of the fire extinguishers kept in the secretariat were long past their active life. Or in other words, the same were useless. When the basic fire prevention tools inside the heart of the government administration remains in such utter state of neglect and ineffectiveness, then it becomes a double surprise as well as an outrageous act to carry out a senseless fire drill there annoying, discomforting and even physically injuring people in the process. Instead of doing such ridiculous things, the fire department should be engaged in activities that really matter.
The main such activity on the part of that department would be acquiring greater capacities against fire situations such as the one that broke out recently in the Bashundhara mall. Special capacities to reach floors of multi-storied buildings well above twelve floors should be acquired. The department should seek and aim to include more personnel for its services and recruitment to that end. It should increase its fire fighting capacities in all conceivable ways apart from bringing all parts of the country under its services. Fire department should be proactive in drawing the attention of the government to its needs. Government on its part should be responsive to these suggestions and promptly. Government should also maintain regular publicity in the media about fire prevention. The publicities should try and imprint in people's minds the ways of self care such as not throwing around lighted objects carelessly, to handle gas stoves with the greater care, to repair worn out electrical lines that cause fires from short circuits, not to keep easily inflammable goods in residential area, etc. The fire department should be urged to carry out fire drills regularly and extensively throughout the country to increase people's awareness about their responsibilities in dealing with fire situations, or, more significantly, what the people ought to be doing on their own as safeguards against fire. Fire exits or stairways and the keeping of functioning fire extinguishers should be made mandatory for all high rise buildings. The fire department should inspect whether the directives in this regard are being followed.
All of the above measures and more, introduced and enforced over a period of time, will contribute a great deal towards fire prevention than the sort of drill that was played out on the secretariat. The implementation of a well conceived plan of fire prevention is necessary because fires lead to very great destruction of scarce resources in this one of the poorest countries, every year. Effective fire prevention will lead to saving of much scarce resources.