A prominent feature of Banani Road-11, Kamal Ataturk Avenue, Satmasjid Road, Khilagon Taltola, and Mirpur-11 is that tall buildings there house restaurants, cafes and commercial kitchens, just like the buildings on Bailey Road.

These "restaurant buildings" make these places the buzzing hotspots they are.

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Death came draped in smoke

As the Bailey Road fire has shown, a blatant disregard for safety is just as prominent as the buildings themselves.

The Daily Star visited 37 of these "restaurant buildings" that housed over 100 restaurants and found 22 buildings with safety lapses that could potentially lead to casualties in case of a fire.

This paper's correspondents looked at whether there was any fire exits, whether the stairwell was protected by a fire-rated door, and whether the stairway was being used as storage.

"Since these buildings are mixed-use buildings, they must have a separate fire exit," said Prof Adil Muhammed Khan, head of the Institute of Planning and Development.

"Our current laws do not mention restaurants as a category of occupancy. This is a loophole. We recommend that the next amendment to the building construction rules plug this," he said.

DHANMONDI

On Satmasjid Road, The Daily Star correspondents visited 21 "restaurant buildings" and found safety issues at eight.

An 11-storey building on one end of the road with at least eight restaurants was found to be storing LPG cylinders on both the main stairwells and the emergency exit.

Large 45 kg gas cylinders were seen at the unmarked emergency exit on three floors and two large cylinders at the main stairwell on the sixth floor.

The staircases were being used to store large boxes, thereby obstructing egress during an emergency.

An eight-storey "restaurant building" next to this building had no emergency exits, and neither did a six-storey building housing a jam-packed burger joint.

A seven-storey and six-storey building had no emergency exit.

At a popular 14-storey restaurant hub, the emergency stairway on the 8th and 10th floors was blocked by large boxes.

At another 13-storey cafe and restaurant building, the fire-escape door was locked on the ground floor.

There was another exit but that leads straight to a semi-outdoor kitchen fuelled by LPG.

A 12-storey restaurant tower on road-27 stored broken furniture on its main stairway.

The ground floor door of a fire exit at this Dhanmondi restaurant was found locked. Photo: Star

BANANI

Correspondents of this newspaper documented violations in four high-rise buildings housing 21 restaurants in these areas.

A 21-storey building on Kamal Ataturk Avenue had only one stairway barely wide enough for two people.

A lift operator at the building said, "In case of a fire, that narrow stairway is the only escape route."

The building housed at least three restaurants on the first and second floors, while the upper floors were occupied by a private university.

In 2019, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha marked this building as risky.

Another 13-storey building with five restaurants on road-11 had only one stairway. There were no fire-rated doors to keep the stairs safe.

The stairway was partially blocked by construction materials on the second-floor.

Across the street from this building is another 13-storey building with seven restaurants. But it has no emergency exit or fire-rated doors.

Another seven-storey building in Banani with six restaurants was found to have a single narrow stairway– and even these stairs were used for storing four 45KG LPG gas cylinders.

The sole staircase of this restaurant building in Banani has little space left with broken furniture scattered along it, which will likely act as fuel in case of a fire. Photo: Star

KHILGAON

The only way out of a five-storey restaurant building at Taltola are two flights of steel rung stairs that lead from the first floor to the ground.

A single stairway in this building leads to this steel structure on the first floor, which could become unusable in case of a fire.

Another seven-storey building with three popular restaurants and a popular electronics store had only one three-foot wide stairway.

A five-storey building with six restaurants and one sweetmeat shop, and a three-storey building with three restaurants also had only one narrow stairway each.

BAILEY ROAD

Of the five buildings with 23 eateries visited by The Daily Star on Bailey Road, three had safety issues.

Right next to the building that caught fire on Thursday was a 14-storey building with restaurants and flats.

The main stairways led to the first floor while the upper floors could only be accessed with elevators.

Towards the back of the building, there was an exit adjacent to the restaurant kitchens.

A person exiting through these stairs would face several gas cylinders kept along the narrow path next to the "exit" gate in the basement.

A few metres ahead, a 10-storey shopping mall and residential building had a fire exit, but it was found locked.

Another nine-storey building with restaurants on the ground floor and shops and offices up to the third floor had no designated fire exit or door.

MIRPUR

On Mirpur-11 correspondents of this newspaper visited at least five restaurants where violations were aplenty.

An eight-storey building with a rooftop had no emergency exits. There were only two lifts and a narrow stairway.

On Mirpur 12, a building with at least 14 restaurants had no fire exit on the first three floors.

In addition, the fire exit stairway was obstructed with construction materials.

Zyma Islam, Md Abbas, Muntakim Saad, Dipan Nandy, Arafat Rahaman and Sajjad Hossain contributed to this report.