Big cities at risk as no fire safety system in place

People in the capital and the other big cities of Bangladesh are exposed to high risk of fire as no fire safety system is in place anywhere, said academics and experts.
They expressed concern over the loss of 96 lives in two devastating fire that broke out in the capital within a short time span of 38 days since February 20.
This happened mainly due to a pervasive culture of non-enforcement of the law for which thousands high-rise buildings could be constructed in the capital and also in the port cities of Chattogram and Khulna as well as in the north-eastern city of Sylhet flouting the National Building Code and Bangladesh Fire Act.
Unplanned development activities in the cities without maintaining any difference between residential and commercial zones were largely blamed for the recurrence of devastating fire in densely populated Old Dhaka as well as posh residential areas like Gulshan and Bananai.
If Old Dhaka where one cannot distinguish between residential, commercial and industrial zones experts said it was equally puzzling to see that these differences had been removed at posh residential areas like Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani, Uttara and Dhanmondi all flouting the law with the authorities looking the other way if not with their indulgence.
Even repeated reprimands by the Supreme Court could not sensitize the government and the authorities under it to enforce the law without any fear or favour.
And an endemic issue remains highly selective enforcement of the law that keep the favoured out of the reach of the law, feel experts.
Despite directives and strictures from the court the authorities took no interest to remove inflammable chemical factories, storage facilities and businesses from the densely populated Old Dhaka since 2010 when a devastating fire killed 124 people at Nimtoli besides causing other collateral losses.
And that precisely was the cause for which another devastating fire at Churihatta, Chawk Bazar could deal another blow on the night February 20 claiming 70 lives and leaving scores of others injured besides reducing many buildings and businesses to ashes. 
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman finds the unholy nexus between building owners and Rajuk breeding corruption as highly disturbing.
He said that illegal structures could be built in the capital by either greasing the pals of the regulating authorities or other enforcers of the law.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh president aormer chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission Ghulam Rahman told New Age that the burden of thousands of illegal buildings in the capital hangs on Rajuk’s neck like the albatross on the ancient mariner’s.
‘Bring the responsible officers to account first,’ he said adding that either they failed or they took benefits to keep an eye shut.
He thinks that the building owners alone were not responsible for what happened and continues to happen.
He said that the responsibility of the officials involved cannot be absolved in any way.
In that context he said if the buildings were demolished only the owners would be penalised and demanded to know why the officials who are maintaining silence to enjoy the money and other benefits they had taken as bribe to allow the illegality would not be brought to the book?
Fire Service and Civil Defence records show that at least 1,493 people were killed and 7,549 others injured in 1,68, 018 fire incidents across the country in last 10 years.
At least 96 people were killed and several hundred others injured in 234 fire incidents in the capital alone in last three months.
BUET professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary said that all most all the buildings in the capital were constructed flouting the National Building Code and the Fire Act. 
He said that the building code required each and every high-rise building to have its own safety measures like fire exit, fire alarm, fire extinguishers, water reserve and the other requirements in place according to the size and height of the structure.
Dhaka University Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies director and Professor Mahbuba Nasreen said that the facilities must be there in place so that building occupants could fight fire until the arrival of the Fire Service personnel.
She also called for holding fire drills from time to time to train building occupants about what they ought to do until the fire fighters arrived.
Jahangirnagar University urban planning professor Akter Mahmud said that safety measures in place could not be expected in any city where thousands of building could be constructed violating the law.
In last nine years, 4,16,091 buildings were constructed in the 1,528 square km area, comprising the capital, and the cities of Gazipur and Narayanganj, under Rajuk’s jurisdiction and over 3,70, 803 were unapproved.
Owners of only 173 buildings took the mandatory occupancy certificates from Rajuk.
One could find the information in a report Rajuk prepared in June 2018 for its Detailed Area Plan, better known as DAP. 
Disaster experts said that devastating accidents might occur at unapproved buildings anytime.
Urban planner Akter Mahmud said that unapproved buildings face the risks of fire, building collapse and other fatal hazards.
Rajuk officials said that 3,373 buildings were 10-storied and taller and over 22 lakh buildings were there in the area under their jurisdiction.
A survey done last year shows that 66.11 per cent of the buildings had been constructed deviating from approved plans.
Rajuk took no action against any violation. 
Rajuk officials said that they found four types of serious violations including vertical and horizontal risky extension of buildings, not following fire safety issues and not leaving the required spaces around and between buildings.
The 23-storied FR Tower, where at least 26 people were killed and over 100 others injured by fire on March 28, had five unauthorized floors, said Rajuk chairman Abdur Rahman.
According the approved design, FR Tower should have been 18-storied, he said.
Its emergency exit was built violating the rules and the hose pipes and fire extinguishers did not work, said BUET professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, a member of the committee formed by Rajuk to investigate into the FR Tower fire.
Housing and public works minister SM Rezaul Karim told New Age, ‘We will take action against Rajuk officials involved with the irregularities.’
Since Monday, 24 Rajuk teams began drives across the capital to identify multi-storeyed buildings that were constructed deviating from approved plans.
Professor Ansary said that BUET in coordination with the Fire Service and Civil Defence found out during a survey that 53 buildings with eight to 24 floors took no objection certificates from the Fire Service and that only two hospitals and two international standard hotels were constructed according to approved designs.
The violations not only committed by individuals but also the government hospitals and markets, said Fire Service officials.
They said that 98 per cent of the hospitals including Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital face fire risks.
Besides, 28 markets of Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation were in fire risks, they said.
Therefore, it’s not at all surprising that the DNCC Kitchen Market at Gulshan- 1 was reduced to ashes by devastating fire twice in last 28 months.
Mayor of Sylhet Ariful Haque Chowdhury said that they started preparing a complete list of vulnerable buildings in the City of Sylhet.
There are around 54,000 buildings in the City of Sylhet including 250 high-rises with no fire safety in place, Sylhet City Corporation officials said
At least 57 out of 200 shopping malls with no proper fire safety in place and not emergency exits and spacious staircases though they are vulnerable to fire, they said. 
Chittagong Development Authority chief town planner Shahinul Islam Khan said nearly three lakh buildings were there in the Port City of Chattogram but most the shopping malls, private clinics and hospitals were built without fire safety measures exposing thousands of visitors to the risks of fire every day. 
Most of the buildings are vulnerable to fire outbreaks as these have been operating without adequate or even no fire safety measures, posing threat to fire accidents risking lives.
BUET mechanical engineering professor Md Maksud Helali said that the culture of law violation, indifference of government agencies and lack of fire education increased the fire risks in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.
He said that electric short circuit was the sole source of fire which caused 50 to 60 per cent fire. Second highest source of fire was kitchen fire.
‘In most of the building people hardly measure electricity load and supply demand caused spark and originated fire,’ said Maksud Helali.
He also criticized the quality of electric appliance and supply line materials for the cause of the spark.
Electrical and electronic engineering associate professor of the university Dr. Md. Zahurul Islam said that a huge number of fire originated from electric short-circuits every year and it has been increasing gradually as use of electric appliances also increasing.
At least 70 per cent fire incident might reduce by installing electric lines in proper ways, he strongly believed.
He found that most of the houses were wired by unskilled people having no drawing or design or any load assessment.
He also found that house owners reluctant about electric wiring and they prefer cost minimizing here.
Electric wiring should be inspected at intervals of 25 years to save life and property from fire, he said.
He said that wiring in most of the buildings was done by unskilled electricians in the country.
Mechanical engineering department of BUET associate professor Dr. Md. Ashiqur Rahman said that interior decoration of corporate offices and different other kind of buildings in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country increases fire risks.
He said that interior decorators use inflammable or highly combustible particle board, gypsum boards and cork sheets as false ceilings and decorative panels in which fire could spread very quickly. When fire and smoke spread quickly people don’t have much scope to escape or fight the fire, he said.
‘In our densely populated capital with buildings so close to one another, and so many people living and working the use of combustible materials multiplies multi-dimensional fire risks,’ he said.
Khulna University Urban and Rural Planning Professor Tanjil Sowgat prescribed three-level reforms to deal the current crisis: individual knowledge and awareness, institutional capacity for enforcement and political accountability.
Intuitionally, the responsible 11 government agencies should monitor compliance of rules in planning, construction and post construction phase, he said. 
Immediate past Fire Service director general Ali Ahmed Khan said that fire fighters faced different obstacles when they respond fire. 
‘Traffic jam and water crisis on the spot are main problem,’ he said.
Former director of House Building Research Institute Mohammad Abu Sadeque said that not only fire, the capital was in high risk of earthquake.
Total 72,000 vulnerable building were identified in 2009 under the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, a UNDP-funded project of the government that concluded in 2015. 
But the authorities took no action to rectify or demolish the risky buildings.
Sadeque said that in the event of quake striking the capital, more people would be killed by fire due to disruptions in gas pipe lines power supply lines.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net