The fire at Chawkbazar’s Churihatta intersection was a wake-up call for the entire country including the administration. Several steps were taken to ensure that such tragedy doesn’t take place again. As part of the initiatives, many probes were opened and it brought to light many buildings in the capital which are in risk of fire and lack adequate safety measures.
One such place is one of the country’s finest educational institutions Dhaka University and the authorities are oblivious to the risks.
For almost a year, expired fire extinguishers have been lying around in the arts faculty building, which people familiar with the matter say will be useless if disaster strikes.
Thousands of people including teachers and students are regulars in the arts faculty building given that it’s the biggest in terms of number of students.
Everyday, undergrad and post grad classes of 32 majors take place in this building.
There are around 70-80 fire extinguishers in the six-storied arts faculty building and every single one of them expired last June.
Responding to queries on the matter, DU Proctor Golam Rabbani said that there is a set of people to look after the maintenance of each building.
“My duties are outside the building, not inside. But I’ll keep note of it,” he said.
“We didn’t have so many plans before regarding fire. We have to work on it,” he added.
Meanwhile the care takers of the building are clueless about how to use the fire extinguishers.
“There’s no need to replace the existing extinguishers now,” said Faculty of Arts Dean Abu Delowar Hossain.
“We spoke to the fire brigade employees before installing them and they said that these can be used for two to two-and-half years,” he added and said that they had no immediate plans to replace the equipment.
The dean thinks that the risks of fire are quite low and any situation regarding fire can be brought under control given that there is a fire service unit nearby.
Most of the extinguishers have had their expiry date tag torn off, especially the ones on the front corridors.
Mahmudul Hasan, an evening student of the university says that despite many incidents, the authorities have not taken the matter of fire safety seriously.
Another student, Samiul who is equally frustrated at the university authorities laid back attitude towards such a matter says, “I don’t know whether they are expired. But even if they’re not we don’t have any idea about using them.
He added that in the two years that he has been studying at DU, they haven’t had any kind of fire drills either.
In fact the arts faculty students can’t remember any such drills ever taking place.
“Has the university students ever conducted such a drill? I have neither seen it, nor participated in it,” said Razin, a student.
He said that though people think about doing this in times of crises, it doesn’t happen after the crises is over.
Responding to queries about how prepared the university and its students were to tackle a fire crisis Proctor Rabbani said that they have BNCC and Rover Scout teams and nearly 600 of the members work with things such as fire safety.
Saying that it wasn’t enough to cover the whole university, he said, “It’s true that we didn’t have any fire drills with the general students.”
On DU’s fire safety, Fire Service and Civil Defence Department Director (operation and maintenance) AKM Shakil Newaz told Bangla Tribune that none of the educational institutions across the country are equipped to deal with a fire disaster.
“Does DU have anything other than fire extinguishers? They don’t have extinguishing stands, water risers or pump,” he told Bangla Tribune.
He said that it was doubtful whether there is a fire escape route and they don’t have enough manpower or training to operate the extinguishers either which is merely a primary step.
Newaz said even though the expired cylinders won’t act as explosives or start a fire, during a crisis they won’t be useful either.
He added that they might not have enough pressure or explode and instead of saving lives will put them at more risk.