Taib Ahmed
The Fire Service and Civil Defence on its own does inspect not the city high rises to check the status of fire safety measures, sources in the fire service said.
Spot visits shows many high rises in the city lacked adequate fire-fighting equipment and properly trained personnel.
The building owners neither conduct fire drills on their own nor seek cooperation from the fire service, keeping them vulnerable to fire incidents.
The Fire Service and Civil Defence director general, Abu Naim Md Shahidullah, told New Age, ‘There is no mandatory provision for the fire service to inspect privately owned high rises. However, we regularly inspect the government high rises.’
‘The fire service provides private building owners with three types of assistance for charge only if such people want the help,’ he said. ‘The types of assistance are consultancy, training for the building’s own fire fighters and fire drill.’
The BRAC University vice-chancellor, Jamilur Reza Choudhury, said, the fire service should inspect every private building at least once a year to check the status the fire safety measures.
Architect Iqbal Habib said, ‘According to the Bangladesh National Building Code and the Fire Brigade Ordinance, high rises must be inspected regularly by the authorities.’
He, however, said there were some contradictory provisions in the Bangladesh National Building Code and the Fire Safety Code regarding fire safety measures.
‘These anomalies should be immediately removed to bring in harmony between the two provisions,’ he said.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha is, meanwhile, planning to form a joint team, with the officials of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, to inspect high rises after the completion of their construction.
‘In the wake of the recent fire, we are planning to form a joint team of Rajuk and fire service officials to inspect buildings after their completion,’ the Rajuk chairman, Md Shafiqul Islam, told New Age on Sunday.
‘After the fire I the Bashundhara City Tower, we sat at an emergency meeting and have decided to form such a team so that before issuing occupancy certificates, we can see whether the fire safety measures of the buildings are in place,’ Shafiqul said.
Shafiqul on Sunday said they would again sit on Monday to work out the ways and means for the team.
Talking about the existing measures to check the status of the fire safety measures in high rises, he said, ‘According to the Bangladesh National Building Code 1993 and the Fire Safety Code of 2003, authorities of every building are supposed to get a clearance certificate from the Fire Service and Civil Defence before building construction and it is the fire service authorities which should inspect the building regularly to establish whether the measures described in the clearance certificate were functional.’
‘Even the fire service authorities can fine the building owners in chase of any anomalies,’ he said.
Courtesy of newagebd
