In late 2019, the Fire Service conducted an inspection of the Secretariat’s fire safety protocols.
Following several building inspections, a number of hazards were found, and in 2020, suggestions were made.
However, they did not implement these recommendations.
Instead, various buildings used easily flammable materials to decorate their floors.
On Thursday night, four years later, a destructive fire tore through Building No. 7 of the Secretariat.
The building, which was fifty years old, had inadequate fire safety measures.
At 1:52 am, the fire service received a report of a fire, and 19 units hurried to the scene.
Despite being contained at 8:05 a.m. on Thursday, the fire was totally put out at approximately 11:45 a.m.
The fire raged for about ten hours, damaging the building’s sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth floors.
The nine-story building also houses the offices of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, Road Transport and Highways Division, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Labor and Employment, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Local Government Division, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Posts and Telecommunications Division, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The fire primarily damaged the documents on the eighth and ninth floors.
Firefighting efforts were delayed, according to fire service officials, because fire trucks had trouble getting to the Secretariat’s entrance and there wasn’t enough water available at the scene.
The 1960s saw the construction of Building No. 7, one of the Secretariat’s older structures.
During the building’s renovation, combustible materials like plywood and wood were used for decoration.
Debashish Bardhan, a former deputy director of the Fire Service, told bdnews24.com on Saturday that the Fire Service had examined the Secretariat’s buildings’ fire safety systems, deeming them to be of utmost importance, and had offered a number of recommendations.
The home ministry received several letters with these warnings.
However, they chose not to implement these suggestions. He claimed that there was total negligence and that they did not take the matter seriously.
According to Debashish, he retired at the close of 2023. He had noted that the Secretariat buildings were “unsafe” even prior to his departure.
The former top firefighter continued, “Building No. 7, which the fire damaged, is very old.” That building’s electrical wiring was old. Each room had false ceilings installed for aesthetic reasons.
“That building did not have a fire hydrant.”
He apologized for the loss of firefighter Md. Shoyanur Zaman Nayan, who was attempting to put out the fire when he was struck by a truck.
“With enough water, the young firefighter would not have had to run with a water pipe and would not have died. No outside water would have been needed if there was a hydrant or underground reserve.
“Why wouldn’t a location like the Secretariat have these facilities? Why are they unable to provide these things when they are spending billions?
According to Debashish, only one fire service unit was stationed inside the Secretariat, despite the fire service’s proposal to build a fully furnished fire station there.
In order to facilitate fire truck access, he added, the Fire Service had suggested enlarging the Secretariat’s northern entrance.
They did not, however, follow through on this suggestion. Fire extinguishers were the only fire safety precautions in the building, and even they weren’t enough.
“There were not enough extinguishers positioned at the appropriate distances.”
During the fire, one of the ten-story building’s upper floors was noticeably ablaze.
Social media users expressed suspicions about this incident, with some people—including two advisors—speculating that it might be a part of a “conspiracy.”
The former official, drawing from his personal experience, responded, “An investigation committee has been formed, and they will certainly look into it,” when asked for his thoughts on the situation. The simultaneous occurrence of fires in three or four different locations, however, raises concerns.
Given the age of the building, a short circuit might be the reason. Regular testing of electrical wires is necessary, and there would be obvious indicators if the fire was electrical.
“If it was sabotage, chemical tests would show the truth,” he concluded. Police will undoubtedly test the evidence in a lab.
