Development of fire fighting strategies to cope with increasing fire hazard vulnerability in Dhaka city: creating social awareness

Background and present state of the problem

Aims

The aim of this research paper is to create a social awareness towards fire hazards and draw attention of the concerned administration to improvise the fire fighting strategies and enforce appropriate laws to tackle the problem.

Objective

To conduct a detailed investigation concerning the increasing fire hazards of Dhaka city to find the best possible solution.

To identify the key factors concerning fire incidents.

To identify and recommend the responsibility of different actors to create social awareness against fire hazards.

To find possible ways to tackle fire hazard and design rescue process in present context.

To find variables which are flexible to change, even in the conjusted urban context and can facilitate fire hazard rescue.

To attempt to find new type of stratetegy to tackle fire incidents and if required, incorporate new design elements or illustrate conceptual basis of the process. Possible Outcomes:

An in-depth study will bring light to a number of aspects regarding fire hazard incidents. The research will identify the reasons behind fire hazards, its victims, misery and the damages. Also it will bring light upon the possibilities and challenges of fire fighting strategies prevailing in Dhaka city. By analyzing the problem thoroughly, the study will draw attention to the different actors it involves, their roles and performance. The result of the research is expected to create awareness among all the levels of populace and encourage forming efficient strategies to combat fire hazards effectively.

Outline of Methodology:

Literature Review

To establish the concept and to have a better knowledge and understanding of the matter, an elaborate analysis of data is done scrutinizing variable source of data collection. Extensive relevant literature and data from both published and unpublished sources like national and international news papers, journal-papers, proceedings-papers, reports, web documents, blogs and dissertations have been reviewed.

Selection of Study Area
The Nimtoli residential area of Dhaka city; the capital of Bangladesh, has been chosen to conduct the research process due to its vulnerability towards the discussed issue. Nimtoli, part of old Dhaka is mainly a residential area which also hazardously houses the chemical warehouses and has faced the most tragic fire incident in the capital. Such chemical warehouses in these residential areas are very common in this eastern part of Dhaka city, which has no protective measure or effective strategy against fire hazards, largely due to its lack of consciousness.
The neighborhood has been selected considering the following criteria
On June 3, 2010, at least 123 people were killed and more than 200 others were injured due to the outbreak of fire at Nimtoli that originated from a stove in a building that also housed a combustible chemical warehouse on its ground floor.(Fire hazard vulnerability: A case study in Dhaka city by Bijoy Kumar Roy,University of Dhaka)

After the Nimtoli inferno incident, a task-force, comprising members of Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD), RAB, police and district administration, had set up 88 mobile courts in different parts of Dhaka.

According to Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD), six warehouses have been shifted till now. But, The Independent found that the warehouses have been shifted from one residential area, to another. (ref.)

Selection of Research Method
When applied to people and their environments, “resilience” is fundamentally a metaphor, and quantitative methodologies fail to capture people’s experiences and perception [8]. In this case, qualitative participatory approaches can provide insights into the experience and perception of resilience. Appraisal tools facilitate collection and analysis of information by and for community member. Until recently, participatory appraisals have been conducted primarily in rural areas reflecting the foundations of the methodologies. However, increasingly, these methodologies have been used in urban contexts. Because of the strong presence of local government and nature of livelihood opportunities in the particular case, among various qualitative participatory approaches, the Participatory Urban Appraisal (PUA) method is chosen to conduct this research. Conceptually, PUA as a methodology can facilitate a research that examines the interrelationships and operationally can contribute to design and implementation of municipal and community-level projects [9]. At the same time a questionnaire survey will be conducted to get quantitative data about individual level initiatives regarding building materials and construction systems according to individual’s financial affordability to build safer houses.

Data Collection

To accomplish the research objective, data information will be collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary Data Collection
Primary data will be collected directly from the community including victims or the residents of the chosen vulnerable area. Through a range of techniques data will be collected. These techniques are as followed:

Group Discussions: It encourages an extended analysis and conversation among community participants. The size of groups can range from 10-12 people to 25-30. The composition of groups depends on a number of factors, including gender – with single sex groups as well as mixed groups; age and gender – with mixed age groups as well as young, middle-aged and elderly groups; and religion and profession- mixed religion groups as well as specific discussion with particular religion group. It is important to identify the gender, age and religion of all participants throughout the research process [9]
Semi-structured Interviews (on a one-to-one basis)
Time line
Transect Walk and Direct Observation
Resource Mapping
Documentation (photograph, drawing and audio-video recording)
Ethno-histories and Biographies (on a one-to-one basis)
Questionnaire Survey: The survey will be conducted on 50 households among 200 households of the study area, Nimtoli residential area.

Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data collection source can be chosen from the different organizations dealing with the fire incidents such as Fire Service and Civil Defense (FSCD), RAB, police and district administration etc. Data on the community and locality can be collected from Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) etc.

Data Analysis

All the collected data will be compiled and scrutinized by using tools of participatory urban assessment such as mapping, listing, time line, matrix of trends, preference matrix, ranking, casual flow diagram etc. By analyzing all the findings a conclusion will be drawn and finally a dissertation will be prepared.

Zanhem azila