No repetition of Keraniganj fire, please!

Devastating fires from illegally stored flammable chemicals in crowded residential areas, especially in Old Dhaka, have been claiming scores of lives in regular intervals. Another deadly fire claiming the lives of, according to the latest report, all six members of a family at Godarbagh area of Keraniganj, took place in the wee hours of Tuesday (August 15). The fire, according to reports, completely burnt down the tin shed that housed the chemical depot and the living quarter adjacent to it where the victim family lived. The fire was reportedly so intense and accessibility to the scene of tragedy was so limited that it took hours for the firefighters to reach there and bring the blaze under control. The chocking toxic fumes produced by the burnt chemicals filled the air of the locality to the utter discomfort of its inhabitants.So, it is not only the fire caused by the explosive chemicals that kills, the fallout from such fires such as the reported toxic fumes are also equally life-threatening for those still surviving around the scenes of devastation.
The government officials who visited the latest scene of blaze expressed, as they did in case of infernos at Nimtoli (2010) and Churihatta at Chawkbazar (2019), their extreme shock and resolved to put an end to the illegal practice of keeping dangerous chemicals within residential quarters. Also, following Tuesday's Keraniganj fire, the local MP made a similar promise referring to High Court orders to this effect and declared that henceforth there should be no chemical warehouses within any residential area. Unfortunately, nothing was said about what did happen to the government move made 13 years back immediately after the Nimtoli conflagration to relocate the illegal chemical depots to its designated place in Keraniganj and Shyampur. A cruel irony is that in the case of Tuesday's Keraniganj fire, the owner of the burnt down chemical warehouse was also from Churihatta of Chawkbazar and he built his depot at Godarbagh following the 2019's Chowkbazar inferno! It only points to extreme insensibility towards human life and disrespect for values on the part of those people who stockpile flammable chemicals among dwelling houses flouting regulations. Clearly, the failure of the authorities concerned to clamp down on the illegal practice of storing such hazardous materials in public places has emboldened these people to repeat the crime in flagrant violation of the law.
Even though the government officials at the scene of Godarbagh tragedy sounded firm and earnest about removing such chemical storage depots from residential areas in Dhaka, one wonders if they have any estimate of how many of such unlawful chemical warehouses are operating under their very nose in the older parts of the city. Going by the Department of Explosive's data, there are 137 of such licenced chemical depots in the Old Dhaka including Keraniganj and its adjacent areas. But some media reports hold that, actually, around 5,000 unlicensed chemical warehouses are operating unlawfully in those areas. Chemicals are stockpiled in residential buildings at Armanitola, Babubazar, Mitford, Chawkbazar, Lalbagh, Islampur, Chankharpul and its adjacent areas. Even worse, the highly inflammable of those are stored in the basements of busy shopping malls.
In fact, it is a problem of humongous scale waiting before the government to be addressed. The government needs to put its foot down and prevent repetition of another fire tragedy like the one at Keraniganj in the future. Whatever may be the cause of the Keraniganj fire, the owner of the illegal chemical depot of Godarbagh must be meted out exemplary punishment.