Fire safety: Crackdown may begin in Dhaka next week
Following the massive fire accident in a multistorey building in the city's Gulshan-2 on 19 February, Dhaka city authority and the fire department have decided to launch a joint campaign against infrastructures that do not comply with the fire safety regulations.
Brigadier General Main Uddin, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defence, has hinted that the drive would begin next week in coordination with the city corporations and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, he said the crackdown will target buildings in Dhaka that do not have a complete fire safety certificate.
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"We will go on a joint campaign with the city corporations. We will investigate the buildings to check whether fire safety laws were followed or not. Other safety issues will be monitored by the designated departments," he said.
The announcement came after two people faced tragic deaths in the Gulshan fire incident that also left many injured. It took four hours for 19 firefighting units to douse the blaze that broke out on the seventh floor of a 12-storey building.
According to firefighting officials, the building owner had obtained a no-objection certificate from the fire service but didn't get an approved fire safety plan which is mandatory under the Fire Prevention and Extinction Act 2003.
