Although incidents of deadly fire took place in various parts of the capital city, there has been hardly any improvement in the fire safety situation due to lack of stern action against the law violators.
Even after the High Court order to ensure fire safety measures at the high-rise buildings in Dhaka city the authorities concerned did not pay heed to the court orders.
In some cases, Fire Service and Civil Defence authority issued notices to comply with the fire safety measure, but the building owners were reluctant to do so that claimed lives in deadly fire incidents.
The Building Construction Act 1952, in section 18A, empowers the government to make any provision namely Bangladesh Building Code.
The 2006 Building Code specifically deals with general building requirements, control and regulation, fire protection, building materials, structural design, construction practices and safety, building services, alteration, addition to and change of use of existing building, sign and outdoor display, matters relating to administration and enforcement of the above matters.
Despite such laws existing in Bangladesh, monitoring and enforcing safety in construction is still a big challenge due to various limitations such as confusion regarding enforcement authority, shortage of manpower at enforcing agencies, and lack of a national safety certification and lack of proper monitoring.
On June 10 in 2010, the High Court (HC) of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh ordered the government formed probe committee headed by the Home Secretary to find causes of the Nimtoli fire incident occurred on June 3 in 2010 and formed committees to identify the unauthorised buildings, warehouses and factories where chemicals, explosives and other flammable or petroleum products (both authorised and unauthorised) were stored and to submit the report to it within three months.
After the Nimtoli, fire incident took place 2010, three other major fire incidents in Dhaka- Churihatta, FR Tower and Bailey Road-have claimed 267 lives but there has been hardly any improvement in the fire safety situation in the capital.
Promises of action follow every large-scale fire incident in commercial and residential spaces but theres hardly any impact.
In the latest fire incident on February 29, that swept through a seven-storey commercial complex on Bailey Road, killed 46 people.
The fire erupted just before 10:00pm, apparently triggered by a gas cylinder explosion on the ground floor, a Fire Service official said. It took 13 fire-fighting units nearly two hours to contain the blaze but the damage had been done by then.
Fire Service served three notices to the building authorities cautioning them about their poor fire safety but nobody paid any heed.
"It was a dangerous building with gas cylinders on every floor, even on the staircases," fire service chief Brig Gen Main Uddin said.
On June 3 in 2010, an electrical transformer exploded at Nimtoli, Chankharpool, sparking fire in the nearby chemical warehouse.
The blaze spread to several nearby buildings filled with flammable materials and chemicals. By the time the fire was brought under control, 124 people had been burned to death. About 50 were injured.
The Nimtali tragedy shook the country. Bangladesh had not seen so many tragic deaths in fires until or since then.
It prompted the government to decide to shift all chemical shops, warehouses and factories from the residential areas. But 13 years later, they are still there.
On February 20, 2019, at around 10:30pm, a gas cylinder exploded in the Churihatta area of Chawk Bazar. Due to the chemicals stored in Waheed Mansion, the fire spread swiftly to pickups, private cars, rickshaws and motorcycles stuck in traffic jam on the road. More than 50 people were killed on the streets that day.
The fire was brought under control after 14 hours. By then, 67 people had died on the spot. Later, the death toll rose to 71. Hundreds of people were injured.
Five years have passed since the Churihatta tragedy but the scars are still fresh for the victims.
The scenario has not changed much. Many houses still contain chemical warehouses.
Twenty-seven people died and hundreds were injured in a fire that broke out on March 28 in 2019 in the multi-storied commercial building FR Tower in Banani. The fire started on the eighth floor of the 22-storey building.
As the fire spread quickly to other floors, many people trapped inside the building tried to break the glass and climb down with ropes. Some of them fell down and died. Along with the fire service, members of the air force, army, navy and police joined the rescue operation to bring the fire under control.
The fire was blamed on illegal floors, flawed design and lax fire safety measures. RAJUK prepared a list of risky multi-storied buildings in the city and promised to make the list public as well as demolish the illegal installations. But, there was no follow through after the passage of some months.
After the incident, responding to a writ petition the HC had on April 1 in 2019 directed the authorities concerned to submit a detailed report on fire safety measures at the high-rise buildings in Dhaka city.
The Mayors of Dhaka North and South City Corporations, RAJUK Chairman and Director General (DG) of Fire Service and Civil Defence have been asked to jointly submit the report to the HC in four months.
In response to a writ petition, the court also ordered the DG of Fire Service to submit a separate report in a month on manpower, equipment and other necessary things to douse the fire.
The court also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain in two weeks why construction of the buildings without sufficient fire safety measures should not be declared illegal. The rule is now pending with the HC for final hearing.
After the Gulshan Market fire in January 2017, the Fire Service Department identified that almost all the 200 commercial high rises in the capitals Banani and Gulshan had no approved of fire safety plan.
National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kamal Uddin Ahmed said that the building authorities did not comply with building codes that resulted in deadly fire incidents.
"Building code was not followed in many cases. There was no fire fighting system. No one can escape responsibility for this fire incident," he said.
In response to a query, there was negligence of various service organizations of the government as there was no proper monitoring system. The authority must take responsibility for the fire incidents.
