Thesis Title: Fire Hazards in Dhaka City: An Exploratory Study
Introduction
Whereas, Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh has grown up haphazardly since the period of liberation creating the embryo of fire hazard and resulting into death, injuries as well as property damage. In fact, fire incidents have been recognized significant cause behind the greatest loss of life and property in Dhaka city.
At present, Dhaka city is crowded with estimated population of more than 15 million people (Source: wikipedia), making one of the largest cities in the world having population density of 45,000/km2 or 115,200/sq mile (Source: wikipedia). With the passage of time, this ratio of density is ever increasing. Due to climate change issue, rural people are migrating to Dhaka city with an expectation of having least required livelihood. To meet up the need for habitation of these migrated people, more and more slums are being established without following any rules and plans. Unplanned city growth has also lead to the development of congested and unhealthy slums that are generally built with flammable materials. As a result, in the event of a fire, the fire spreads very rapidly causing great damage. There are many people in the city who lack knowledge about the safety or precautionary measures one should take to prevent a fire incident at their home or workplace. In addition, not many people also have proper knowledge or training about the preventive measures that the community should take to tackle the fire to some extent before the fire fighters arrive.
In Dhaka city, Warehouses with chemicals and other types of inflammable materials as well as industries are commonly found in residential and commercial areas. Furthermore, unauthorized electrical and gas pipeline connections can be found throughout the city. Unplanned city growth has resulted in dense developments with narrow roads in some parts of Dhaka. In the event of a fire it becomes very difficult for fire trucks to approach these areas. | |
Fire at high rise building particularly at garments is very common in Dhaka. In fact, major fire incidents take place due to unplanned construction of buildings being used by garment factory owners. Most of the buildings did not follow the building code and lacked arrangements for alternative staircases and emergency exits and firefighting equipment. Keeping collapsible gates under lock and key in the name of security is the main cause of increases casualties in the incidents.
Rationale of the study
As part of course fulfillment of Masters of Disaster Management (MDM) at Institute of Disaster Management of University of Dhaka, each student is supposed to submit a dissertation paper. Accordingly, it was decided upon to work on fire hazard in Dhaka City. This study would look at the reasons of fire hazard and my study area is Dhaka city. This study would explore community level preparedness they use to mitigate fire hazard in Dhaka city. Most of people in Dhaka city are unaware or indifferent with risk factors of fire hazard. This paper would aim at finding the scope of creating awareness among community people in Dhaka City
Objective
To explore community level preparedness in Dhaka city to mitigate fire hazards

Literature Review
A literature review is based on the assumption that accumulates knowledge and that people learn from and build on what others have done. This will deal with the previous research works of different scholars and articles as well as reports of journals, magazines, newspapers etc.

The literature of fire hazards often reflect the resulting alienation and marginalization, detailing victim’s experiences and echoing the sentiments inculcated in their mentality. The aftermath of fire creates unemployment, mental shock, psychic disorder, death, handicapped, huge damage etc.

A) Overview of Books and Journals

Fire is one of the earliest innovations of civilization and an essential part of our existence on the earth. Still it is the name of a dreaded demon which burns everything into ashes when it gets out of control. Fire can cause widespread destruction within no time and is one of most feared scourge of modern civilization. Although fire hazards cannot be fully eliminated, corresponding risk can be minimized by better preparedness and well planned mitigation strategies developed on the basis of comprehensive analysis based on its spatial, temporal and causal pattern. It is vital that hazard levels be assessed in order to understand the spatiality of fire hazards and enable distribution of the optimum dynamic resources in a balanced manner (Gunther, 1981 and Dodge, 1996).

Emergency services need current information to provide quick and adequate response. Such information includes spatial details on land-use, functions of structures, access network, and availability of resources. To combat the menace of fire hazard it is required to integrate the spatial context and potential population exposure together with technical and engineering aspects (Rayner, 1992). Spatial context can be an important factor in determining the scale of potential harm but has often been neglected in setting of criteria or thresholds which determine levels of risk management process (Gordon et al., 2000). Recent perspectives on natural hazards also emphasize on the wider spatial and social context within which the effects are experienced. The concept of vulnerability has been particularly important, encompassing the physical relationship between hazards and communities at risk, accident preparedness and mitigation and the social geography of potentially affected populations (Blakie et al., 1994). In addition to the spatial characteristics, it is required to analyze the temporal and causal characteristics of fire hazards to reduce the danger.
The most significant component of the database is the information on type of incident which is categorized into five major groups namely, major fires, small fires, precautionary alarm calls, malicious false alarms, and special services (Jobair et al., 2004).

B) Overview on newspaper articles of fire hazards in Bangladesh
Fire in BSEC Bhaban : A devastating fire broke out at the Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) Bhaban in the capital on 26 February 2007. Several witnesses said the fire originated from electric oven; while some others said it was sourced from electric short-circuit. Three persons were killed and more than 100 injured in this incidence. NTV, RTV offices totally burnt and went off air (www.thedaily star.net).
A BFSCD report (www.daily-sun.08 October, 2011), collected last June, shows a rising trend in the number of fire incidents in the Dhaka metropolitan: 2006 (1220 times), 2007 (1100), 2008 (1110), 2009 (1775), 2010 (2068) and 2011 up to March (638).
Pathetically, there is a lack of proper initiatives by the government to mitigate loss from fire incident. Our preparation to reduce fire occurrence should include: proper initiatives to minimize unplanned high-rise buildings and enforcement of building code; education, training and research, and dissemination of information; awareness programme about fire hazard; fire extinguishers at every house, institution, shopping mall and industry; proper training to use them; fire stations in all fire-prone areas especially the eastern part of Dhaka; fire stations at thana level; more training for fire fighters as well as individuals; regular check of electrical wiring, instrument and gas lines, etc. Fire can break out anytime in any region, but we must know how best loss of lives and properties can be minimized.

C) Overview of government and non-govvernment support system in fire hazards
Fire Service and Civil Defence is a department working for all kind of rescue missions in Bangladesh including fire safety, safety during air raids and any kind of disaster. Emergency hotline for fire service is 1-9-9.
In 1982, "Fire Service", the fire defence agency and "Civil Defence", the unarmed warning and rescue force and the general rescue force, was amalgamated into Bangladesh Fire Service & Civil Defence.
There are nearly 6,500 people working in the FS & CD, Bangladesh. There is one Directorate General having the equality of Brig. General. Also have three posts for directors, nine Deputy Directors, more than 20 Assistant Directors and 80 Deputy Assistant Directors.
There are more than 200 stations, some first class having a Senior Station officer, more manpower and cars, the rest are second class having a station officer and less manpower. There are only 5 river stations in a country where flows 230 rivers.

Methodology
A combination of different methods would give us a much more rounded picture of the phenomenon being studied. Thus both quantitative and qualitative data collection method s were used in this study. There was no single or best way. Analysis depended on the understanding of the data.
Sample size
The sample size would be 100 persons. 80 people would be survey-interviewed, 10 people would undergo key Informant Interview (KII) and 10 case studies would be conducted for collecting information to satisfy the research objective. Purposively target group was selected but to reach them, in some cases, snowball sampling would be used. To reach others; who would be interviewed would be asked to provide the names of others who fit the requirements.
The Study site and location

The study would be conducted in Dhaka city, the most densely populated city in the world with a population of about 15 million in an area of 1528 sq km. It has a wide variety of land use and a diverse physical character. There are residential, commercial, some industrial and mixed land uses in the area, as well as a number of educational institutions. KII and survey questionnaire would be conducted in both Dhaka north and south city corporation area.

Techniques of Data Collection
Empirical data would be collected from primary sources through survey interviewing (open-ended questionnaire, and structured questionnaire). The language in the questionnaire would be made as simple as possible, though the researcher had to give explanations on the questions at occasions.
The study period of one and half month would be taken for completion and processing of data. Collected data would be tabulated by the researcher through SPSS. Data would be furnished in the form of tables, charts and graph.

Time Frame
The thesis work has to be finished by October, 2013. Because of time constraint and professional responsibility, there has less chance to conduct field work during day hours in working days. Following time frame has developed to complete thesis work: Time | Activities | Week One | Selection of Title & Objective | Week Two | Developing Research Proposal | Week Three | Literature Review | Week Four | Literature Review & Data Collection | Week Five | Data Analysis | Week Six | Data Analysis | Week Seven | Develop Thesis Paper | Week Eight | Completion & Submission Thesis |