Gulistan underground market is on the most dangerous list of fire service
Despite being repeatedly told by the fire service, there is not even a water reservoir under the shop windows, there is no modern fire fighting equipment.
Dhaka’s Gulistan underground market, built two decades ago, has been identified as extremely dangerous. Members of the government’s law and order forces, including the fire service, conducted a survey and announced this decision on Thursday.
After the fire in Bangabazar, the government agencies including the fire service started surveying Dhaka’s markets, they went to Patal Market in Gulistan on Thursday.
This underground market with underpass in Gulistan is known for mobile repair, mobile spare parts and cheap electronics products. There are about 150 shops here.
Bajlur Rashid, Deputy Assistant Director of Zone-1 of Dhaka Division of Fire Service after surveying the underground market, told reporters that this market is a high-risk facility in terms of fire. All the markets and multi-storied buildings they visited in the Dhaka Zone-1 area in the last one month were risky, nine of them were very risky.
Explaining the reason for saying this, he said, the fire service is repeatedly told that there should be a reservoir of water under the commercial windows. There are none here, no modern fire fighting equipment.
“There is no source of water here. After the fire, the access of the fire service personnel is also very narrow, the water supply system is very difficult. Apart from this there is no fire detector and alarm system. Some fire extinguishers are available but some of them are expired, some are ineffective.”
Fire service official Bajlur says the air circulation inside this market is ‘very bad’. He also showed the issue of setting up shop in the narrow stairs.
He said that after inspecting this underground market two years ago, the fire service gave a report that it was ‘high risk’. But no action was taken on that report.
This time, after the fire in Bangabazar, the government agencies have stepped up to identify the risky market.
Prime Minister’s Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman says that some shops in Dhaka, which are at risk of fire and accidents, will be closed after Bitan Eid.
Source: Bini