Fire at Aga Sadek Road
Unplanned urbanisation is the main reason for the loss of lives. The fire of Sunday midnight at Aga Sadek Road should help the authorities concerned to wake up before the city growth gets out of control.
Nine lives were lost in the devastating fire. Who is to be blamed for it? Apparently, the fingers will be raised at the shoe-making factory located at the ground floor of the house from where the fire originated. If we look deep down inside, we will get to see that the building which was gutted by fire did not have any Rajuk approval but still was occupied by people as residents. The staircase is too narrow for two people walking side by side. Unauthorised shops/factories were located in the ground floor, even though the area doesn't have enough wide roads for developing any sort of industry/factory.
It is true that the fire truck had difficulty arriving in the area, but my question is, at midnight the roads were empty and why the 1st fire truck which came to the spot was not carrying any water? If it was carrying water, it could have immediately got into action which would have been more than enough to extinguish the fire. The 1st truck would have been good enough to save the lives if it had come with water. For the readers' information, the fire brigade office is less than half a kilometre away from the spot.
I have talked to the locals and got the above information. The situation could have been worse if the locals did not act in fighting the fire and saving the lives of some residents of the building. Without the locals' interference the fire could have easily spread into the next buildings adjacent to the ill-fated one and could have easily turned into an inferno which could have destroyed thousands of houses and nearly a million lives of Aga Sadek Road, as majority of the houses in that area have more or less a shoe factory with all fire friendly chemicals.
Our sleeping city fathers of Dhaka have always neglected the old part of the city and it is about time that the government and the authorities concerned take some immediate steps to save the people of Old Dhaka from fire and natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Let's not depend on the government services alone and let's all install at least one ABC and one Co2 fire fighting cylinders at every home, since we need to save ourselves.
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