A fire devastated a popular clothing market in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on the morning of Tuesday, April 4. The fire at Banga Bazar damaged thousands of shops and covered the surrounding neighborhoods with black smoke. At least 47 units of firefighters comprising 600 men found it difficult to douse the flames for nearly six hours, according to reports. Three adjacent commercial precincts were also completely gutted. The cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained and no casualty has been reported.
At least 10 buildings including a four-storey market have been burnt to ashes in Bangabazar, the capital of Bangladesh. Part of the police headquarters was damaged by fire.#bangladesh #Dhaka #fire
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— Hossain Tareq (@HossainTareq6) April 4, 2023
Shops damaged in the fire were mostly made up of tin and wood and thousands of shop owners are in distress as almost nothing has survived. Shop owners complain of incurring major losses as mostly readymade garment products were stocked in shops ahead of the Eid festival. “I have never seen such a flame ever in my life. Everything in my shop was burnt down,” shopkeeper Abdul Mannan was quoted as saying by Reuters. Some shopkeepers were reminded of gory memories of the past when the entire market was turned into ashes in 1995.
Banga Bazar Shop Owners Association’s D M Habib said that he was unable to describe the total losses but estimated that at least 3,000 shops were burned down, reported Al Jazeera. Bangladesh Dokan Malik Samity President Md Helal Uddin stated that around 5,000 shops had been destroyed in Banga Bazar and the surrounding market complex, reported Daily Star.
The market is managed by the Dhaka South City Corporation and has witnessed six small to medium fire incidents in the past, primarily caused due to lack of safety arrangements and poor monitoring. The shopping complex was declared at fire risk by the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defense in 2019, which hung banners giving a notice to building owners but the calls went unnoticed.
Bangladesh saw 24,102 fire incidents last year, which claimed 98 lives, including of 13 firefighters, as per estimates.
Repeated incidents of fire have added to the distress of people amid high inflation rates in the country. Bangladesh’s inflation rate increased from 6.2% in February 2022 to 8.8% in February 2023.
The South Asian Network on Economic Modeling, in its latest survey, found that inflation in Bangladesh was dramatically impacting the poorest strata. The prices of essential items have increased up to 151% year-on-year on average, according to estimates. The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh has also reported that the price of meat has risen by an average of 39% and rice by up to 30%.
