Saturday’s fire on the 23rd floor of the 26-storey Ahmed Tower in Banani -- standing directly adjacent to FR Tower, where a tragic blaze claimed 26 lives in 2019 -- was brought under control by the Fire Service without casualties. This is good news, and is cause for celebration.
However, measuring urban safety solely by whether lives were lost on a single afternoon is a dangerous illusion.
Just days earlier, a horrific gas cylinder explosion at a garment factory compound in Ashulia claimed nine lives and injured dozens. Together, these incidents illustrate a chilling reality: Whether in modern commercial high-rises or sprawling industrial hubs, fire safety across Bangladesh remains a lethal afterthought.
The contrast between these two blazes exposes systemic negligence across sectors. In urban centres, rapid vertical expansion has far outpaced regulatory enforcement, with faulty electrical wiring, overloaded server rooms, unserviced air-conditioning units, and obstructed emergency exits being the norm.
In industrial corridors, unsafe handling of flammable material, improvised supply systems, and inadequate hazardous-material protocols turn factory premises into ticking time bombs for workers and nearby residents alike.
Relying on the heroic response of firefighters is not safety but a last resort. Reaching infernos above the tenth floor of a high-rise or navigating congested industrial alleys in Ashulia poses immense operational hurdles.
Thus, it is prevention, strict compliance, and active building safety systems that must form the backbone of our national fire policy.
Until building owners, industrial management, and regulatory agencies treat fire safety codes as mandatory laws rather than optional guidelines, every workplace and office tower in the country will remain a potential tragedy waiting to happen.
Those at Ahmed Tower were fortunate, while those nine in Ashulia paid the ultimate price with their lives. Fire safety must be treated with the seriousness it deserves so that citizens do not have to rely on luck to survive.
