How prepared is Chattogram to face another fire disaster?
A lack of adequate firefighting equipment and of coordination is mainly believed to be responsible for the deaths
For any city during a fire disaster, the fire service becomes its first responder and the key force to save lives. However, this emergency service in Chattogram, a city marred by a flurry of fire-related accidents in recent months, remains understaffed, underequipped and ill-prepared.
Last year, 13 firefighters lost their lives while responding to an explosion at the BM Container Depot in the port. With memories of that devastation still fresh, in less than a year six more were killed in an explosion at an oxygen plant in Sitakunda.
A lack of adequate firefighting equipment and of coordination is mainly believed to be responsible for the deaths.
Fire service officials say the port city is already prone to natural disasters due to its geographical location. Added to that, man-made disasters like fires and factory explosions make the city vulnerable to fire catastrophes.
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When such a city should have a strong fire service, it lacks the capacity to secure its seaport, airport, refineries, container depots, economic zones, and hundreds of garment factories.
Besides, the capacity of its fire service has not been increased even though the number of hazardous installations in Chattogram has been increasing due to unrestrained development work.
Data reveal that the Chattogram Fire Service has only 775 personnel against the sanctioned number of 1,026 in the entire district. It has one 22-story, two 17-story and one 7-story ladders for conducting rescue operations.
However, the fire brigade is unable to use three of the high ladders due to the narrow roads and the flyovers in the city.
There are only four foam tenders and the necessary equipment, including a high-tech Turntable Ladder (TTL) and snorkel, is also not sufficient for effective firefighting.
Abdul Halim, deputy director of the fire service for Chattogram, told The Business Standard that a 40-foot wide road is required to move the 64-metre-long ladder it has for rescue operations in multi-storied buildings.
"There is no such wide road in Chattogram. Besides, most of the main roads of the city are covered with flyovers. Therefore, we struggle to move with our ladders when accidents happen," he said.
Abdul Malek, assistant director of Chattogram Fire Service and Civil Defence, said at least 42 markets and 12 slums in the city are at serious risk of fire. "As slums and markets are densely populated, it is difficult to reach these areas quickly with equipment."
According to fire service data for the last two years, the loss of human lives and money from fire incidents in Chattogram has been on the rise.
In 2021, there were 1,910 fire incidents in the city, causing the death of 60 people and a loss of assets worth Tk20.68 crore. A year later in 2022, the figures jumped to 259 lives lost, and assets worth Tk43.58 crore lost in 1,911 fire incidents.
Meanwhile, in the first one and a half months of this year, there have been 409 fire disasters in the city, leaving eight people killed and costing Tk18.79 crore.
Lack of water source:
According to the Department of Environment, there were about 25,000 ponds and water bodies in Chattogram in 1981.
The number dropped to 4,523 water bodies in a 2007 survey of the Chittagong Development Authority.
The number came down drastically in 2018 when a survey by the Chattogram fisheries found that only 615 ponds remained in the 41 wards of the city.
According to the findings through the joint efforts of these three public and private organisations, 24,000 reservoirs have disappeared in Chattogram in four decades. ***
