The country has witnessed as many as 18,048 fire incidents in last one year causing an estimated loss of Taka 430 crore, fire service officials said on Saturday.
“In the last one year from July 2016 to June this year, some 18,048 fire incidents took place in the country which caused losses of Taka 429 crore 93 lakh 78 thousand,” Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence Director General Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan told.
He listed electrical short-circuit, burners’ fire, pieces of thrown out ignited cigarettes and burning ashes as major causes of fire incidents.
“Some 244 new fire stations will be set up at upazila level across the country by 2019 under two separate projects to stop fire accidents and minimize the causalities,” he said adding “Currently, the process of land acquisition is going on for the project, to be completed by 2019 with funding from the government.”
Currently a total of 330 fire stations are being operative in the country, he said.
Khan said they have submitted a project proposal to Disaster Management and Relief Ministry for taking a special initiative to make 62 thousand urban volunteers at community level to cope with different accidents including fire and earthquake.
The Fire Service Director General hoped that when the 62 thousand volunteers will be fully ready, they can cooperate with fire fighters in rescue operations to minimize the losses and causalities.
He said the number of houses, multistoried buildings, shopping malls, garments and industries are increasing rapidly because of urbanization; as a result disaster incidents are also rising.
“As a prior measure, we will impart training to the volunteers to fight disasters,” he said.
