No fire safety in 63pc of 1,818 high rises in capital

At least 63 percent of the 1,818 buildings in the capital, 10 storeys or higher, lack fire safety measures, the housing and public works minister said yesterday citing Rajuk findings.

Of the buildings surveyed by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), only 539 were found to have fire extinguishers, fire alarms, hosepipes, and fire hydrants, said Minister SM Rezaul Karim during a press conference at the Bangladesh Secretariat.

The ministry organised the press conference to make public the probe findings on the FR Tower fire tragedy of March 28. The minister revealed a summary of the Rajuk findings.      

Following the tragedy in Banani, Rajuk launched a drive with 24 teams to inspect high-rises to determine if they had proper fire safety and approvals.

Of the 1,818 buildings, 566 were found to have no emergency fire exits, 721 had faulty emergency exits, and 786 were found to have appropriate fire exit staircases, the inspection summary claimed.

Rajuk teams surveyed buildings in 1,528sqkm area of its jurisdiction. At least 431 building owners, and the authorities of 44 government-owned buildings failed to produce approval documents, according to the survey.

At least 1,136 buildings had Rajuk approved plans while 207 had approvals from other authorities even though they were within Rajuk’s jurisdiction.

A total 309 buildings were made deviating from the approved height and 309 more were using parking space for other purposes, the inspection summary claimed.

Hundred and twenty-four residential buildings were being used for commercial purpose.