Our disregard towards fire and building safety is to blame

The recent fire in the capital's Eskaton, which killed three people, two of them children, and left six others injured, two of them in critical condition, brings to the fore the complete apathy of the building owners and the government agencies concerned about the fire safety issues in the city. Reportedly, the fire broke out in a five-storey building in Eskaton's Dilu Road in the early morning of February 28. Although it was a residential building, there was a buying house and a small garment factory with 10 sewing machines on the second floor. And the officials of Fire Service and Civil Defence primarily suspected that the fire originated from the electrical board on the ground floor and spread very quickly because there were flammable garment accessories in the first and second floors of the building.

What we do not understand is, why would there be a garment factory in a residential building, which is illegal according to our law? Isn't it Rajuk's responsibility to check such irregularities by the building owners? We also understand that this was not the only residential building in the city that housed a garment factory in it, there must be many such buildings in the city that have been renting the residential spaces to commercial establishments, violating the building codes and other regulations.

From the recurrence of fire incidents in the city, it is clear that we, the residents of the city, as well as the authorities concerned, have never taken the issue of fire safety very seriously. Has anything changed after the deadly fires in the city's Nimtoli in 2010 and Chawkbazar in 2019?

Moreover, after the devastating fire in Banani's FR Tower in 2019, the Rajuk authorities promised that they would survey all the buildings of the city in phases in order to stop the recurrence of fire incidents. We would like to know the updates from Rajuk as to what has been done by them so far. Also, there is no alternative to raising awareness among people in order to stop repeated fire incidents in the city.