Bashundhara fire
Bashundhara Group's Corporate Office, attached with the Bashundhara City Shopping Mall, saw a devastating fire on 13 March 2009, Friday. The fire devoured the top five floors of the tower from 15th to 20th floor except the 16th.
It is assumed that it will not take that much time to rebuild the structures lost to the fire but the loss of documents related to its business operations might put the Group in real difficulties.
Just 13 days before the incident, a report was published in The Daily Star entitled “Most malls in Dhaka run without fire safety” by Helemul Alam. According to the report The Fire Protection Act 2003 directs all the buildings including the commercial establishments to have sufficient fire fighting equipment and conform to measures of public security.
The Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence said, “According to the fire rules, every floor should have at least two fire extinguishers, hydrant point, water reservoir and a tank on top which will always contain a certain amount of water.” He also said that every market needs to arrange training on safety net. We know that most of the city markets do not have fire safety measures. But it shocked me that having all these equipments and necessary training on this purpose how could the fire be allowed to become so big at Bashundhara City.
Being a client of Meghna Cement Mills Limited an enterprise of Bashundhra Group, I had an opportunity to go to its corporate office at level-14 of Bashundhara City Tower where I saw enough safety equipments such as two emergency exits, hydrant points, smoke detectors and so on. Even after the accident, I got another opportunity to visit the damaged area of the tower part and I found that the fire equipment had been used, the glasses of hosepipes were broken, gas cylinders were left used. I am astonished knowing that in spite of having such modern fire detecting and preventing system the fire spread menacingly.
I also heard that the management of Bashundhara Group used to conduct fire drills regularly.
We, from the bottom of our hearts, appreciate the approach of the employees of Bashundhra Group, firemen, the members of the armed forces, police and local people for trying their best to bring the fire under control and maintain peace and discipline in the area. We are shocked at the death of 7 employees of Bashundhara and the damage to the architectural masterpiece. However, we also would like to know why the fire could not be controlled before it caused so much damage.
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