The human cost of the fire at Banani’s FR Tower was too high for us to bear, and the administration has done little so far to ease citizens’ worries regarding fire safety -- be it at home or at work.
The fundamental flaw at the centre of the fire -- and indeed any of the numerous structural catastrophes we have witnessed in the recent past -- has been a blatant disregard for compliance of basic safety rules and building code.
It has barely been a month since the Chawkbazar fire wreaked havoc over in Old Dhaka that we witnessed another fire claim 26 lives, and another fire has gutted the DNCC market in Gulshan, which only goes to show that violation of rules and regulations is rife in the capital, regardless of the socio-economic standing of the area.
The high-rise building FR Tower in Banani lacked many of the components and facilities that would have prevented such a catastrophic fire.
According to Bangladesh National Building Codes’ “Fire Drill and Evacuation Procedure,” every building must have an emergency evacuation protocol, first aid and firefighting plans, and training and responsibilities for occupants to carry them out. High-rise buildings must be equipped with heat detectors, flame detectors, rate-of-rise heat detectors, and chemically sensitive smoke detectors.
FR Tower complied with next to none of these provisions, even forgoing the fundamental requirement of any high rise building: A fire escape.
Is it any surprise, then, people lost their lives to gross negligence?
While the administration has its fair share of blame for this tragedy, the onus lies on the building owners for failing to comply with basic safety standards. It is not entirely unrealistic to expect corruption playing a large part in such corners being cut.
Which makes us wonder: How many buildings around the capital are at-risk of similar incidents?
Enough lives have been cut short due to non-compliance of the rules -- it is time for the administration to take a hard and uncompromising stance against buildings that are not up to code.