Raging Inferno: How extreme heat and habitual neglect is driving rising fire incidents
A prolonged heatwave, high electricity usage, and overall lack of awareness among people are some of the major causes behind recurring fire incidents in the capital’s markets
Forty-year-old Rakib Hossain was the owner of Al-Ijaz Collection, shop no 320, at the New Super Market shopping mall adjacent to the capital's Dhaka College.
On 15 April Saturday, he closed the shop at 3am. He left Tk1 lakh from Eid sales in the cash register.
Rakib was all set to bring in goods worth Tk2 lakh in the morning to meet the growing Eid demand.
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But all of his hopes and dreams were burnt to ashes after a massive fire broke out at the popular shopping place at around 5am.
A helpless Rakib, with hands on his head, cried out, "I could not save any of my goods from the fire. Everything, items worth Tk15 lakh, has been gutted."
"I was informed about the fire right after it started. But the blaze was so intense that I could not go inside," he said.
"I have lost everything. I don't know how I will repay my Tk8 lakh loan," Rakib, who came to Dhaka from Noakhali and worked his way up from a shop assistant, lamented.
"It is natural that when temperature rises, things easily turn into combustible materials. We have recorded as high as 42-degree Celsius temperature in Dhaka. But this time, the temperature has been continuously high for a long time. Since 4 April, we didn't have any rain, and no vapour in the air." - Abdur Rahman Khan, Meteorologist at Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
Located near the New Market and Chandrima Market, the New Super Market – one of the capital's most popular spots for Eid shopping – caught fire on Saturday morning.
It happened in less than two weeks since the Bangabazar fire incident on 4 April that burned down a couple of thousands stores in Banga, Islamia, Barishal Plaza, Enajko, Mahangar and Adarsha markets ahead of Eid.
In the last two weeks alone, the capital has witnessed several fire incidents, including separate ones destroying markets and warehouses, and small-scale electric fires here and there.
On 14 April, fire broke out at a warehouse in Hazaribagh, and a day before, at least 20 shops and warehouses were gutted after a fire broke out at Nawabpur Mohammadia Market.
Fire incidents in the capital have been on the rise along with the prolonged heatwave that has gripped the city and almost the entire country since 4 April.
The city has recorded high temperatures before, but the prolonged nature of this heatwave is an exception.
Smoke was still emitting from the New Super Market when we interviewed Al Amin of Mishu Fashion, store no 262.
Just a while back, two rescue workers were brought back from inside as they fell ill. The aggressive summer heat, coupled with the dense smoke from the fire, engulfed the entire market area.
The shop owners at the second and ground floor of the market were bringing out their goods, risking their lives. But they were desperate to save their livelihood.
The fire caused the most damage to the third floor. About 200 shops here and about 50 shops on the second floor were burned down.
Firefighters were struggling to get inside as heavy smoke nearly blinded them.
Mishu Fashion belongs to Al Amin's father.
"We woke up to the news of fire," Al Amin said, adding, "when we reached, we saw smoke all around our shop on the second floor."
"Our shop is next to the stairs. We had products worth around Tk90 lakh. We tried our best to save some of them from the fire," he added.
Al Amin also said their Eid sales were not very good to begin with. "We thought we would sell better in the last few days before Eid. Now after this fire, I don't know what to do. We are finished," he broke down in tears.
The season of fire
Samiul Haque came to New Market early in the morning along with his family to do Eid shopping. They came from Keraniganj on Saturday – the last weekend before they left for their home district.
But after arriving, they saw the New Super Market was on fire.
"The bus dropped us off quite far from here. We heard people saying there was a fire. I thought it will be a small one, but after coming I saw the market was burning," he said, still in disbelief about the incident.
Ziaul Haque came from Shahjahanpur for Eid shopping with his children and wife.
"As it was Saturday, I thought I would do all the shopping from here. But now, all the shops in this area are closed," he said.
People like Samiul and Ziaul, who prefer to shop in places like the New Market and Bangabazar, are worried their choice of shopping destinations is being narrowed by one fire after the other.
We asked Dinmoni Sharma, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defense, Dhaka Division, "Why are so many fire incidents happening in Dhaka lately?"
"This is the dry season. The temperature is very high. The fire incidents are occurring for various reasons," he replied.
He said people are using a lot of electricity, and electricity mismanagement is a large factor in the rising fire incidents. Also, this is the Eid season. The markets are full of products and people. There is no space even for walking. Any kind of negligence can lead to a massive damage.
"This is a season of fire. If you see past records, fire incidents occur during this time of the year," Dinmoni said.
"Right now a lot of the incidents are electric fires. When temperature increases, the usage of electricity increases. As a result, we are getting a lot of electric fire events," he added.
Mismanagement of electricity is an obvious issue, but there are other major ones, such as the massive rise in temperature all around the market, overall fire mismanagement of the authority, and lack of awareness among common people.
Everything turning 'combustible'
A couple of kilometres from the market, Ripon, a rickshaw puller hailing from Rangpur, was huffing and puffing under the scorching sun while carrying passengers.
"I cannot do it anymore. Several days are left before Eid. I will go home," Ripon said while sweating profusely, although the weather, albeit extremely hot, was not humid.
Abdur Rahman Khan, a meteorologist at Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said water vapour in the air has drastically reduced.
"Wind was supposed to come from the south, from the Bay of Bengal, with water vapour. But there is no southern wind at present. Whatever we are receiving is very inadequate. From Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal to Bangladesh, this entire region has become a heat wave zone," he said.
"Some of the wind we now have is coming from the north-western region, which is dry. This north-western region is now a heat zone, which is creating heated wind," he added.
Consequently, we don't have the required water vapour in the air and so there is no rain.
As a result, Dhaka and the western part of the country are going through an extreme heatwave.
"It is natural that when temperature rises, things easily turn into combustible material," Khan said, adding, "we have recorded as high as 42-degree Celsius temperature in Dhaka. But this time, the temperature has been continuously high for a long time. Since 4 April, we didn't have any rain, and no vapour in the air."
The meteorologist mentioned the role of climate change behind this weather.
"We had lots of rivers and trees in the past and we didn't have so much buildings everywhere. People are increasingly using air conditions, which is heating up the weather. Moreover, all the wetlands in Dhaka are being filled up," he added.
A tough road to recovery
President of the Dhaka New Market Business Association, Dewan Aminul Islam Shahin said in a press briefing that the fire has left businessmen in no position to recover at the moment.
"Those who went home smiling last night are now crying on the sidewalk. The condition of traders is really very bad," he said.
Just like the fire damaged the businessmen, it also put employees and other workers who depended on the market into deep uncertainty.
50-year-old Rashida Begum has been working as a sweeper at the New Super Market for five years. She rushed to the market after being notified about the fire.
She started praying to Allah to save the place, which provides her an income.
When asked for a comment, she said, "What can I say? I make a living by sweeping the shops here. How are workers like me going to feed themselves in the coming days?"
"Our survival depends on the shop owners, who even give us Eid bonuses. Now the owners have become bankrupt following the fire," she added.
Dinmoni Sharma, however, expressed his regret about the overall fire safety negligence among businessmen and citizens in the country, to The Business Standard.
He said, "They hire guards to prevent thieves in the market, but they have no idea what they will do if there's a fire. Neither the store owner nor the market goers have any idea what they will do in case of a fire incident, although all of us have seen in Bangabazar how devastating a fire can be."
