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Jatrabari factory fire

Another wake-up call to relocate chemical-laden premises
7 October 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
TUESDAY'S inferno at a Jatrabari chemical factory that claimed seven lives including critical burn injury to four is yet another instance of how insensitive we are as a people towards human life. It appears, the devastating Nimtoli blaze and some similar cases of smaller fires that followed were not enough to bring either the authorities concerned, or the operators of these factories dealing with flammable substances to their senses. And it is this inexplicable collective indifference to the gaping problem that has been responsible for the latest lethal fire at Jatrabari. The government appears to have been very active for a while calling for relocating the warehouses and workshops of combustible chemicals to a safer place. The industry minister in early August had told the chemical warehouse and factory owners in Old Dhaka to shift their businesses to any safer place by the 17th of that month. Meanwhile, nearly two months have already passed. But nothing seems to have moved during all these days. In the circumstance, there is little reason to be surprised that the boiler at a chemical factory at Jatrabiri has exploded into fire burning the bodies of seven victim workers beyond recognition. Thanks are due to the promptness of the fire service department that its fire-fighting crew could douse the fire soon enough to prevent it from spreading to neighbouring structures, some of which were packed with chemical substances. The fire fighters noticed stacks of containers with different kinds of chemicals used in making rubber solutions for shoe soles. The chemicals were combustible. So, it had always been a matter of not how, but when the chemical factory would burst into flames. What happened at the factory styled Lily Chemical Company, brazenly flaunting its signboard beside the Jatrabari main road, on Tuesday afternoon was therefore fated to take place today or tomorrow. We don't know how many more fire accidents of similar nature are awaiting us at different crowded places in the city. We would like to believe that the authorities concerned are not just sitting on the highly sensitive issue of chemical warehouses and factories at crowded places in the capital city. The government must take immediate steps to identify through a comprehensive survey such chemical factories and warehouses operating within the city. Based on the survey, they should expedite the process to relocate the warehouses and factories to a safer place. We want to be assured that the Jatrabai chemical factory fire is the last of its kind.

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