Bailey Road Fire: RAJUK finds faults of others, overlooks its own negligence

A probe committee formed by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) has found faults of Dhaka south city corporation (DSCC) and fire service and civil defense authorities at Green Cozy Cottage building in city’s Bailey Road that killed 46 people. However, RAJUK did not find any negligence on its own part, although it is the responsibility of RAJUK to monitor whether a building is being used for the purpose for which it was granted approval.

The seven-member probe committee formed by RAJUK submitted its report on 27 March.

The building that mostly housed restaurants caught fire on 29 February night. According to a case filed by police with Ramna police station, the restaurants were being operated in the building by ‘managing’ RAJUK’s building inspectors. But RAJUK’s probe body did not mention any such information in its report.

It is mandatory to obtain an ‘occupancy certificate’ for use of any building. Because, a building might become risky if it is used for different purposes even if it was constructed by adhering to the RAJUK approval. RAJUK mentioned that the eight-storey Green Cozy Cottage building did not have any occupancy certificate. The building had been used for commercial purposes for 11 years without any approval in the end. DSCC granted trade licences to five restaurants to operate on the building with the occupancy certificate. Meanwhile, the fire service and civil defence issued fire safety-related certificate to one of the restaurants. The report said issues such as RAJUK’s approved design and occupancy certificate should have been checked before granting the fire safety approval.

Reviewing the RAJUK report, architect Iqbal Habib told Prothom Alo that it is solely the RAJUK’s responsibility to see if any building has obtained occupancy certificate. That’s why RAJUK cannot shun its responsibility in this case. The building owners are reluctant to obtain occupancy certificates and RAJUK does not have any monitoring on it. Only 7 to 8 per cent buildings in Dhaka city obtained occupancy certificates. RAJUK showed lack of initiative as well as negligence here.

Although the report submitted to the RAJUK chairman mentioned negligence of the city corporation and fire service, none from these two organisations was held responsible. Rather it put all the blame on building owners and restaurant owners and recommended that legal action can be taken against them.

RAJUK’s member (development control) Mohammad Abdul Ahad headed the probe committee.

While asked about the report yesterday, he told Prothom Alo that he cannot make any comment without permission from the RAJUK chairman.

Fire service also formed a separate probe committee after the deadly fire. The five-member committee submitted the report last week. The report mentioned that the fire originated from a short circuit in a coffee shop named ‘Chumuk’ on the ground floor. The fire spread quickly due to gas leakage from the cylinder in that shop. Also, the people were stranded as the building did not have any emergency fire exit.  

Fire service and civil defence’s director (operations and maintenance) lieutenant colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury headed the committee.

He told Prothom Alo yesterday that the building was an example of gross violation of rules. It was approved for one purpose but was used for different purposes. As a result, the building was at risk.

Fire service probe committee said RAJUK approved the building for commercial use but it did not approve restaurant business on the building. But all the floors except the basement of the building were occupied by restaurants. No preventive measure was taken to mitigate the risk associated. The building had no approval for fire safety measures. Every floor of the building, as well as the staircase, were strewn with gas cylinders.

Fire service and civil defence’s director Mahammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury told Prothom Alo that the building owners did not apply for any occupancy certificate to RAJUK. Also, the building authorities did not apply for a fire safety certificate. Only one restaurant owner took a fire safety certificate long ago which was later cancelled. Although the building was supposed to have two staircases, it had only one. Enough water was stored in the basement. The building did not even have minimum fire safety measures. It also did not have any passage of air flow. All these factors contributed to such a big number of deaths.

A total of 10 non-government organisations including ALRD, ASK, BELA, BLAST and BIILS on 9 March organised a joint meeting to exchange views on the Bailey Road fire at CIRDAP auditorium. RAJUK and other relevant organisations’ negligence in building construction and monitoring were discussed in the meeting. Earlier on 5 March, stakeholders including urban-planners, architects, lawyers and environmentalists held a joint press conference at the National Press Club. The meeting said relevant government organisations get engaged in blame games to cover up their own failure after any major incidents such as Bailey Road fire.

DSCC mayor Sheikh Fazle Nur Taposh spoke about the blame game tendencies of relevant government agencies on 6 March.

"We see that when an accident occurs, one organisation tries to blame others indiscriminately. Investigations take place that are often cursory. We don’t usually see any probe that specifically put liability to the ones responsible under the law. So I would request all to run an impartial investigation and determine who is to blame,” the DSCC mayor said.

DSCC’s spokesperson Md Abu Naser spoke with Prothom Alo regarding the RAJUK’s investigation report.

He said in fact RAJUK itself is responsible for what it mentioned about the occupancy certificate of the building. RAJUK shows unwillingness to provide the city corporation with any building design or other document when sought.

Before the Bailey Road fire, several fire incidents claimed lives of many people in Dhaka city. On 20 February 2019, Churihaatta building fire in Chawkbazar killed 71 people. On 28 March the same year, a total of 26 people were killed in the Banani FR Tower fire. A deadly fire originating from a chemical warehouse in Old Dhaka’s Nimtoli claimed 124 lives in 2010. Negligence of government organisations was blamed in all these fire incidents.

Bangladesh Institute of Planners’ (BIP) president professor Adil Muhammad Khan told Prothom Alo yesterday that it is the responsibility of RAJUK to monitor approval of building design, construction and usage of a building. It is also RAJUK’s responsibility to take measures if any rules are flouted. RAJUK has the most negligence in the Bailey Road fire. So RAJUK should have acknowledged its own failures first and then determine the failures of others.

He added that the culture of evading responsibility by individuals and organisations is hindering establishment of good governance in the country.