City Corporation must investigate the cause of fire at Kathalbagan and rehabilitate the dwellers

A fire broke out at Kathalbagan slum in Kalabagan area of the capital on Thursday night. Six firefighting units douse the fire after hectic efforts. Fire is a common man-made disaster in the slums that make the dwellers’ life miserable. The existing physical, economic and social vulnerabilities of slum residents make them highly susceptible to disasters often resulting in loss of lives and assets. Unplanned city growth and poor infrastructure make it challenging for relevant authorities to respond and manage urban slum fires. Fire, particularly in slums, are common because of the typically flammable building materials in slums, fires ignite and spread easily, especially during the hot dry season and winter season. It is also noted that because of the high density, firefighting and evacuation are very difficult and it is common for slum residents to lose household assets and belongings.
Fire Service and Civil Defence statistics showed that around 250,000 fires occurred in the country between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2018. These fires also caused an estimated financial loss of around Tk 6,400 crore to the nation. Various reports also suggest that such fires are intentionally lit to evict slum residents, or are a result of feuds between rival groups for establishing supremacy. It is also a considerable fact that local goons who control such slums on regular payment of rent may have their hands to evacuate the land to force dwellers to renegotiate their right to dwelling with fresh advances. Powerful people may also be involved in such arson to make the slum empty to sell land or build new shopping or residential housings.
In our view, the city corporation should redesign the slum area, widen the community roads, regularise the gas and electricity connection, bring the slums under regular fire inspection, and slowly but steadily transform the slums into low-cost housing facility, like once Bhashantek low-cost apartment project for urban poor. For increasing fire preparedness, experts opined, conventional smoke detectors are not suitable in slum environments due to the smoke generated by cooking, businesses and burning litter. Therefore, until now slum fire risk reduction activities have focused on behaviour change, emergency planning, and risk minimisation in Bangladesh.