Fire safety of commercial buildings and shopping malls has taken the front seat at discussions after the Feb 20 Chawkbazar fire which killed 68 people.
Over 1,300 shopping malls in the capital have been marked as fire risks. Amongst them 622 are ‘very risky’ and 687 are ‘risky.’
Fire service has repeatedly served notices to the malls and warned them but the authorities are not prepared to take heed.
In 2017, Fire Service and Civil Defence listed these shopping malls as risky after a 10-day inspection. They carried out another inspection in October of that year.
“We warned the mall authorities with reminders and served them with notices thrice,” said Fire Service and Civil Defence Director (operations) KM Shakil Newaz.
He said that the owners were not prepared to take necessary steps despite the Chawkbazar fire that was a gross wake-up call.
Newaz warned of worst accidents in the future if fire safety measures are not taken in these shopping malls.
A survey of ‘Gulshan Shopping Centre’ showed that the seven-storey mall has 725 shops and eight staircases. The electric wires on each floor are faulty and the mobile servicing, hardware and watch servicing shops on the ground floor are at most risk.
The same goes for the second floor and only the sixth floor is equipped with a smoke detector.
Although each floor has fire extinguishers, ‘Gulshan Shopping Centre’ is a fire risk nonetheless.
Contradicting the fire department, business owners at the mall claim that they are fully equipped to handle any kind of fire hazard and the building is risk free.
“We filed a petition with the High Court against the fire service report that marks our centre as risky,” the malls business owners’ association General Secretary Hammadur Rahman told Bangla Tribune.
“This building has a water plant that store 60 litres of water and eight staircases. Every floor has a fire extinguisher,” he added.
Responding to queries about why the electric cables were placed at risky positions, he said that those were internet and dish cables and were completely harmless.
Similarly, the Gulshan-1 Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Super Market has also been marked as a fire risk.
As a matter of fact, back in 2017, the super market caught fire, which gutted almost 600 shops.
“No one has been compensated for the 2017 fire,” the supermarket Chairman Din Mohammad told Bangla Tribune.
He added that city corporation did little to help and the businesses themselves had to do whatever was needed.
Saying that the power cables were a risk, he added, “I spoke to an electrician. It’ll be fixed within a month.”
A shopkeeper of the super market Khokon Mia said that they were working in the midst of risk and they couldn’t do anything unless the City Corporation takes initiatives.
A survey of the Gulshan-2 DNCC Super Market shows that the third floor is in an almost dilapidated state.
The entire supermarket has 400 shops and most of them have their concrete and falling off the ceiling.
The shopping centre, quite popular for being home to shops that store exported items, has narrow staircases and has zero fire safety equipments. According to the fire service report this supermarket is on the list of ‘very risky’ malls.