On a Friday evening, they occupied a stretch of a crowded road to sell clothes from their carts after their shops were gutted by a catastrophic fire at the Bangabazar market, the biggest shopping place for cheaper products. Some of them found refuge in the dusky light beneath a flyover, past the disaster site. Some lit up their makeshift shops with mobile phone torches as the power supply was cut off to the area. The pungent smell of smoke was heavy in the air because small flames still smouldered, three days after the blaze burnt down thousands of shops. Traders and workers were forced to come onto the street to sell whatever they had to curious onlookers and the pedestrians hurrying home after work.
One of the clothing traders was Foyez Ahmed, 35. On the morning of April 4, he received a frightening phone call from his brother and rushed to the marketplace only to find it was already ablaze sending up flames and smoke. Although firefighters arrived on the scene within minutes of the first call for help, the fire went out of control due to the southern wind and ravaged the shops packed with clothes for the coming Id sales. As the firefighting efforts went on, the blaze expanded its arc, ripping through other adjoining markets.
In frantic efforts to tame the flames, Bangladesh deployed the Army and the Air Force. A helicopter was seen carrying water to the disaster site from a lake, some distance away, as firefighters struggled to find reservoirs nearby.
“I lost everything I had in the shop, and so did my brother,” Mr. Ahmed said as he was sitting by the road hoping for some sales just ahead of Id-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival in Bangladesh. His shop stocked up on trousers, shorts, raincoats and jackets — all went up in smoke within minutes.
Country of fires
Bangladesh is no stranger to massive fires. The South Asian nation reported 85 deaths in 24,102 fire incidents in 2022 compared with 219 deaths in 21,601 incidents a year earlier, according to data from the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence. The number of fires at shopping malls and marketplaces rose to 589 in 2022 from 458 a year earlier.
An aerial view shows firefighters trying to douse a fire that broke out in a popular clothing market known as Bangabazar Market in Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 4, 2023. | Photo Credit: Reuters
The Bangabazar fire is symptomatic of the Dhaka markets’ unpreparedness and sheer negligence to prevent massive blazes because they lack warning systems. The fire prompted the authorities to survey at-risk shopping malls and marketplaces.
Gausia is one such market.
The Gausia market has no fire extinguisher control panels used for monitoring and control of systems for active extinguishing. The seven-storey building beside one of the most crowded roads has 430 shops and is one of the busiest in the city. Most shops sell women’s clothing, jewellery, bags, shoes and cosmetics on crammed floors. The upper floors of the market house the offices and warehouses. The six stairways have become narrow due to the mushrooming of shops.
“Not enough people can go down these stairs in the event of an accident. If there is a fire on the stairs, they will become unusable. The shop owners must keep the stairs free,” Bazlur Rashid, deputy assistant director of the fire service, told reporters in Dhaka on April 6.
‘Enforce the law’
Urban planners point to the strict enforcement of the law by government agencies as the way forward. “Their job doesn’t stop at serving notice on risky buildings. They must enforce the law. They are authorised to shut those buildings if the fire code is not complied within 90 days from the first notice,” Adil Mohammed Khan, executive director of the Dhaka-based Institute for Planning and Development, said in an interview.
Referring to an estimated loss of 2.88 billion taka (₹220 crore) from the Bangabazar fire, Mr. Khan said the investment in fire safety at the market would be a tiny fraction of it.
Dhaka is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world, regardless of how the boundaries of the city are delineated. Image for representation | Photo Credit: Reuters
“We must shun the culture of showing indifference to fire hazards in order to keep the buildings and workplaces safe. It’s not just enough to have some extinguishers in the buildings. The government must compel market owners to execute safety measures in the real sense,” Mr. Khan said.
Dhaka, central to the country’s middle-income future, is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world, regardless of how the boundaries of the city are delineated. The city is expanding in an unplanned and unchecked manner. It faces seemingly impossible challenges. Despite unrelenting efforts to upgrade infrastructure, congestion is increasing and travel speeds are declining. While it is the key driver of economic prosperity, it’s also known for its stubborn messiness. Markets and shops have mushroomed in the middle of residential neighbourhoods — the dizzying proliferation of commerce and new apartments — obliterating the last remaining open space.
Death traps
While some of these markets are death traps, they provide an economic lifeline to tens of thousands of workers migrating from rural backwaters to urban areas in search of jobs. For many, this low-paid work is the launchpad for a better future.
On the road past the burnt-out Bangabazar market, one of the young traders who lost their shops to the fire was Omar Faruk, 18. He was waiting for customers as the evening wore on. Unlike other traders, Mr. Faruk did not lose hope. “My father will sell a parcel of land to raise some money for me. We’ll rent a new space for a shop somewhere,” he said.
His voice trailed off into the cacophony of nervous honking as traffic crawled along. Some distance away, a police team arrived to work the night shift to guard the area against potential thefts.
Arun Devnath is a journalist based in Dhaka.
