Insufficient fire fighting system
Photo: STAR
The fire in Bashundhara City once again confirmed our inadequacy in extinguishing a devastating fire in a multi-storeyed building. We are totally handicapped with our limited and primitive fire-fighting equipment. Thousands of pedestrians were helplessly looking at the building. In 2007, we had a huge fire in a large multi-storeyed building at Karwanbazar , and we had seen our shortcomings though our fire fighting personnel had shown great courage, strength in handling the fire. Time has come to contemplate moving fast with immediate procurement of modern equipment for handling such fire, especially in the high-rise buildings and we need to have real expertise on this also, keeping in mind that the city is moving forward fast with hundreds of multi-storeyed buildings and apartment blocks. We also need to make a very comprehensive investigation of the root causes of such fire. The country has been passing through a time of adversity and we hope to have providential mercy.Our fire fighting arrangements are not adequate for the capital city. There is only one fire fighter for 30,000 people and the fire service has only one long ladder. Actually it is unbelievable for a city of high-rise buildings like Dhaka. Successive governments neglected the need for building an efficient fire fighting system. A lot has to be done in this respect to set things right. Jobyda Khanam, Department of Business Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet
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