It has been a little less than four months into this year and already we have noticed a string of large-scale fires and catastrophes in Bangladesh, with the recent Bangabazar inferno being one of the especially devastating ones.
To that end, we agree with the growing choir of voices that putting out fires, metaphorically and literally, well after they have caused undue harm is not a sustainable practice for our nation moving forward.
Case in point, after the Bangabazar fire, the fire service, city corporation, and various other municipal agencies initiated a coordinated program to inspect fire prevention systems at other locations in the capital, including Mouchak Market, Rajdhani Supermarket, and Gausia Market. It was found that there were no water supply connections, fire hydrants, or water pumps in these markets; nor any semblances of an alarm system for detecting fire, and the less said the better about fire escapes and stairs in general.
These are unacceptable shortcomings for the capital city of a nation, especially in locales where large numbers of people gather in droves regularly.
Indeed, it is unacceptable that these markets have been able to run for so long without such basic safety measures and points to a culture of evading accountability within both our administrative offices and the owners of these large shopping complexes. Where such entities are expected to coordinate to ensure the safety of the public at large, they almost always tend to go the opposite way.
Our nation has seen tragedy after tragedy when it comes to factors such as poor fire safety, largely a direct product of unenforced safety standards, and the quick fix of awarding meagre compensation to families that have lost both lives and livelihood is not, and has never been, a particularly effective step against preventing future such catastrophes.
The government and all relevant stakeholders need to do more to hold those responsible for fires and accidents accountable for their callousness.
