STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Electrical hitch, cigarettes, and electric or gas stoves were the major causes of fire incidents in Bangladesh, said speakers at a dialogue yesterday.

Referring to the fire service data of 2022, General Secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) Shaikh Muhammad Mehedi Ahsan said, “Around 38.48 percent of fire incidents occurred from the electrical hitch, 16.08 percent from cigarettes, 13.98 percent from stoves (electric and gas), 3.30 percent from gas distribution pipelines, 2.02 percent from heat ashes or fuel, and 9.17 percent for other reasons.”

Mehedi, who presented the keynote paper in the dialogue, said the causes of 16.97 percent of fire incidents remained unidentified in the fire service statistics.

The dialogue, titled “Cases of Repeated Fire Incidents: Preventive Activities”, was organised by Urban Development Journalists Forum, Bangladesh (UDJFB).

BIP has given a six-point proposal for reducing fire incidents and their aftermath, which includes a detailed survey of all Dhaka buildings and creating a digital database of those, protecting overall natural balance in Dhaka, professional certification for technicians, proper implementation of building construction and land use codes, ensuring occupancy certificate after constructing buildings and increasing organisational capacity.

Prof Md Raju Ahmed of Dhaka University’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering said, “Although most of the electric equipment available in Bangladesh maintained good quality, many people bought low-quality products for saving money. Substandard equipment cannot take the load properly. Eventually, it leads to fire incidents.”

Lt Col Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, director (operations and maintenance) of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said it is a common phenomenon that people in Bangladesh always hanker after buying cheap products.

“People spend money on interior design instead of fire safety, putting their lives at risk. It does not require so much money for ensuring fire safety in residential and commercial buildings. In fact, it requires less than five percent of the entire construction cost,” said the fire service director, adding that they were suffering from a lack of water bodies for controlling fire.