Over 1,500 people were killed and many others critically injured in separate devastating fire incidents in the country in the last ten years.
This devastating fire incident is very painful as such horrific fire incidents continued causing loss of lives and properties caused by negligence.
The latest Thursday night’s deadly inferno at a multi-storey commercial building in city’s Bailey Road reminds that the government’s repeated instruction to install fire extinguishers and take fire safety measures in all buildings is not followed. At least 46 people met the tragic end of their lives in the Thursday deadly fire incident.
Similar fires and other mishaps in buildings catering to the expanding domestic industrial and commercial sectors have claimed hundreds of lives; in these cases, proper safety precautions are occasionally disregarded.
Here are a few of the more notable fire incidents from the past decade:
June 2022: A fire in a depot near the southern port city of Chittagong resulted in more than 40 fatalities and 200 injuries; fire officials speculated that the fire was started by a hydrogen peroxide container because safety protocols had not been followed. July 2021: A food processing factory outside of Dhaka caught fire, killing at least 52 people. According to officials, the factory was constructed without authorization and had inadequate safety precautions.
February 2019: Officials blamed illegally stored inflammable chemicals for the fire that destroyed a building in old Dhaka, killing at least 70 people. The building had three stories of residential space above ground, along with shops and a plastics warehouse on the lower two floors.
September 2016: Authorities said that a gas line leak and a boiler explosion were likely the cause of
the fire that claimed the lives of at least 33 people at a food and cigarette packaging plant in Dhaka.
August 2016: Gas leakage from a fertilizer factory in Chittagong caused more than 100 people to become unwell.
April 2013: The collapse of an eight-story building near Dhaka, which housed five garment factories, resulted in the country's worst industrial accident, resulting in at least 1,136 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
November 2012: Over 150 people were injured and 112 workers lost their lives in a fire at a Dhaka garment factory that supplied international brands. According to officials, a short circuit was the cause of the fire.
A sobering dimension to the crisis is added by Supreme Court lawyer Syeda Rizwana Hossain's revelation that over 16,000 fire incidents have occurred throughout Bangladesh in the last ten years, tragically resulting in the loss of 1,590 lives.
Sources said, approximately 15,000 chemical warehouses are located on the crowded streets of Old Dhaka, which presents a significant obstacle to fire safety initiatives. Communities are at risk of potential disasters because hazardous facilities have not been relocated, despite government orders to that effect following previous tragedies.
An increasing number of fire incidents are a cause for concern as the country deals with the aftermath of the most recent blaze. There were 603 fires in the Dhaka Division alone in September of last year, which underscores the critical need for preventative actions to reduce risks and strengthen emergency response capacities.
Citizens, residents and concerns demand an unwavering commitment to saving lives and coordinated action are crucial in the face of Bangladesh's growing fire safety crisis. Prioritizing fire safety precautions is essential to halting additional fatalities and lessening the severe effects on impacted communities.