Fire at Bashundhara City: A Crude Awakening

Fire in the biggest shopping mall of Bangladesh has raised many questions regarding safety precautions of high-rise buildings and the ability of the fire-fighting forces to cope up with the rapid vertical expansion of the capital city Dhaka. Friday’s fire at the office tower portion of Bashundhara City shopping mall was not the first one in a high-rise building. In February 2007, a massive fire burnt down all the offices in the 11-storey BSEC building, including the offices of private TV stations NTV and RTV. A lot of questions were asked at that time, but somehow they were forgot over time. It can be doubted whether lessons were learned from that accident, as we saw a repeat of that at Bashundhara City. This time, the building was even taller. Fire totally burned down the top five floors of the 21-storey office tower, which housed the corporate office of Bashundhara Group, one the biggest conglomerates of the country. Another two floors were partially damaged. The ten-storied shopping complex was not touched by fire.

Fire-fighters took more than six hours to bring the fire under control, even though the building was said to be equipped with the most modern fire-fighting equipment. A high-level investigation committee has started its work to find the reasons behind the catastrophe and to come up with proper recommendations.

A lot of high-rise buildings have sprung up all over the city, a big number of which have a doubtful capacity to fight fire. Questions are being raised by many regarding lack of proper monitoring of safety precautions in high-rise structures, as well as the fire-fighting capabilities of the Fire Brigade. Lack of proper equipment and lack of exposure to latest training methods of the Brigade are now being discussed at many quarters.