The laws of the Fire Service and the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) on fire safety standards for buildings are contradictory.
Due to this, it has not been possible to take measures against hundreds of thousands of buildings that lack proper fire safety measures.
A facility is considered a high-rise when it houses more than six floors, according to the law of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.
But the Rajuk does not categorise buildings up to the 10th floor as high-rises. The discrepancy in the law helps secure approval from the Rajuk for 10-storey buildings without obtaining clearance from the Fire Service.
Hence, the buildings approved despite such loopholes in the law lack fire safety measures, including a fire exit.
According to existing rules, buildings based on their categories should have respective fire safety measures.
The volume of a building, the density of the people living in it and its 10-storey status are taken into account to ensure fire extinguishers and alternative staircases.
The Fire Service and the Rajuk have no issues with the two factors: the volume of a building and the density of the people living in it.
However, the two government entities oppose each other when it comes to defining high-rises.
Investigating several buildings in the capital, Bangla Tribune learned that facilities up to the 10th floor have only one staircase.
Shockingly, many of the buildings do not even have an emergency exit. Fire extinguishers were hardly found in the facilities.
Very few of the buildings have fire extinguishers but that havealready expired.
Those frequenting the buildings do not have any idea how they would escape if any accident occurred there.
Md Babar Uddin, resident of a nine-storey building in Dhaka, said that most houses in the capital have been built without the approval of the Fire Service.
“The building owners only conform to the Rajuk law, not the one from the Fire Service. However, in case of emergency, they approach the Fire Service,” he said.
“I feel unsafe at the building I live in. It doesn’t have any fire exits, and neither do its adjoining buildings. Even though some of the buildings have fire extinguishers, most of them are already expired,” he said.
“The landlords don’t pay heed to our fire safety concerns.”
Building owners contacted by the reporter said that their buildings were constructed as per the design cleared by Rajuk.
They ducked the question about the approval from the Fire Service.
Haji Nantu Miah of a seven-storey building in Old Dhaka said: “If all requirements set by the Rajuk are met, there is no need for any other authority (to take care of the Building Code).
Even though Nantu claimed that he has a fire extinguisher at his house, this correspondent did not see any while roaming there.
Md Shahjahan Shikder, spokesperson of the Fire Service, said that buildings with more than six floors should always have an emergency exit.
When asked if they had discussed or planned how to adjust the law on high-rises in coordination with the Rajuk, he replied in the negative.
The tools used globally to douse fire can be lifted up to the sixth floor of a building. This is why facilities with more than six floors are considered high-rises, according to the Fire Service.
Despite the Fire Prevention and Extinction Act being adopted in 2003, the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) 2020 was passed without any consultation with the Fire Service.
Stakeholders said that the Building Code was designed in favour of corrupt realtors, architects, and Rajuk officials. The Code defines a high-rise differently.
The Rajuk said that it would soon refine high-rises through discussions with the Fire Service.
When asked about the issue, Rajuk’s Chief Town Architect Moshtaq Ahmed said there has been no progress in this regard.
“We’re working on amending our guidelines. And it is high time we did it. We’ll fix the difference involving the definition of high-rises through talks (with the Fire Service),” he added.
Hinting at dishonest real estate companies and Rajuk officials, Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) General Secretary Shaikh Muhammad Mehedi Ahsan said that the definition of a high-rise was distorted for the interest of a vested quarter.
“As an organization, we’ve been saying that it was not right. Buildings with no clearance from the Fire Service have weaker fire safety measures,” Ahsan said.
He demanded that the lack of coordination between the two laws of the Fire Service and the Rajuk be addressed soon.
“Once done, proper fire safety measures can be planned in the city,” he concluded.