When will the collective psyche of the nation awaken?

It has been a month since the devastating fire in Chawkbazar  took 70 lives and soon after, three new fire infernos in the capital also made headlines—Banani's FR Tower inferno, Gulshan DNCC kitchen market yet again, and a kitchen market in Khilgaon. One cannot forget that so many lives have been lost and many families and businesses were destroyed in these four fire incidents because of the greed and indifference of the building owners.

Fire safety experts found that the commercial building in Banani lacked any safe fire exits. In the Gulshan and Khilgaon kitchen markets, an electric short-circuit might have caused the fires. These show that such fires are not merely accidents but murder because of poor vision in terms of following fire safety and building code rules. No concrete actions and solutions have been taken so far. We have also witnessed bystanders not helping the fire brigade to perform their duty or stay out of the way; rather they are interested in taking selfies in front of the raging fires.

Nuzhat Rifa Ehsan

Baridhara, Dhaka