Fire hazard management of Dhaka City: addressing issues relating to institutional capacity and public perception

Type Journal Article - Jahangirnagar Planning Review
Title Fire hazard management of Dhaka City: addressing issues relating to institutional capacity and public perception
Author(s)
Volume 6
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2008
Page numbers 57-67
URL http://www.bdresearch.org/home/attachments/article/613/jp4a5d753b2e7ac.pdf
Abstract
Dhaka City has been experiencing high rate of urbanization since the last few decades. Presently, more than 11 million people are living in Dhaka City. The development trend of Dhaka is deliberately shifting vertical direction to cope with the extensive population pressure.
Now­a­days, high rise buildings are being constructed in every parts of the city but in most
cases   the   dwellings   are   being   constructed   without   maintaining   the   planning   rules   and
regulations. Fire hazard vulnerability of Dhaka City dwellers has been increased due to reckless
building construction and non­conformation of Fire Protection Act, 2003. Dhaka City has been
experiencing many fire accidents at present and in most cases lack of proper precautionary
measures along with the institutional inefficiency, insufficient equipment support and lack of
public awareness are causing this situation more complex. Existing planning rules and laws are
also insufficient to the present context of Dhaka City. As most of the dwellers do not know how
to use the fire fighting equipments, in most cases all the precautionary measures for combating
fire   generally   go   into   vein.   Therefore,   institutional   reform,   strengthening   of   capacity   at
individual and institutional level are needed in order to reduce fire hazard risks of Dhaka City.
This research tries to explore the existing capacity of Fire Service and Civil Defense Authority in Dhaka City and to assess people’s preparedness in case of combating fire accident.

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