From riches to rags: Bangabazar traders who faced the fire again
Mohammad Harunur Rashid had set up shops in Bangabazar in 1991, becoming one among only a handful who had started trading in the market.
"That time there were only 318 shops, I had one of them. I had invested around Tk1-1.5 lakh that year," he recalled.
When the fire broke out in 1995, it took him over a year to finally recoup the losses.
Harun, now in his 50s, experienced something of a déjà vu on Tuesday when the same market caught fire once again.
Except this time the world was a different place. The fallout would be colder, crueler.
Harun said he had lost Tk60 lakh in goods alone to the fire on Tuesday.
"Including the interior decoration charges of three shops, I have lost Tk1.5 crore. Within hours, I have become penniless," he said.
Harun said his two brothers and brothers-in-law also saw their shops gutted in the fire.
Recalling the incident in 1995, he said back then the government also gave traders around Tk20,000 in cash incentives.
He, however, said the then prime minister had also asked the city corporation to make a list of victims and construct a new market. The mayor at the time had also asked that the new market be handed over to shop owners within months.
"If the government makes us a new market even within a month, it would take at least five years to recover the losses. We would go from being millionaires to beggars," he said.
Golam Faruq Khan, vice-president of the Bangabazar unit of shop owners, said traders could come back from the losses in the fire of 1995 within a year, but he feared this time it wouldn't be the same.
"It could even take 20 years for the medium enterprises who invested more than a crore," he said.
Most of the traders from the first fire didn't even return to the market, locals said. They were said to have relocated to the Fakir Banu Market at Tikatuli.
Nur Alam, 60, had lost his entire life savings, which he invested in his shop.
"It was the same. The fire broke at dawn. By the time it was doused, I had gone from a shop owner to a renter," he added.
"The losses this time are even higher. I plan to return to my hometown. Dhaka is no longer for me."
The myth no more
Zakir Hossain, who styles himself as Banga Zakir, was proud of the identity he had carved for himself.
Shifting from being a ceramic worker, he started his own venture at the Mahanagar Market with around Tk70,000 he had scraped together.
He christened his shop "Shahrasti Garments", an homage to his hometown of Sharasti in Chandpur. He later expanded and acquired some three more shops.
In 1995, his shops became victims to the fire that ran riot through Bangabazar and the greater Banga Market. Zakir had lost money, but he had bounced back.
On Tuesday night, Zakir had been awakened to screaming and shouting. When he heard about the fire in Bangabazar, he rushed towards his shop.
"It was the fire in 1995 which made us vulnerable, taking us to the brink. But we bounced back…this time, I can only envision more dark days," Zakir, now in his 40s, told The Business Standard.
"The fire not only gutted four entire markets – Bangabazar, Mahanagar Market, Adarsha Market and another one – but also threw many families into poverty," he said.
He said his warehouse was on the third floor of the Annexco Tower, which had also caught fire.
Zakir was looking at a loss of around Tk2 lakh to Tk2.5 lakh. But, the loss was more than monetary.
Demands, promises
On Wednesday, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said traders affected by the fire would be provided financial assistance.
"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will provide sufficient grants so that the small traders affected by the fire can turn around again. Besides, we will also give them financial assistance according to our capacity," the mayor said at a meeting with the leaders of the affected traders at his office in the capital's Nagar Bhaban.
The Bangladesh Shop Owners' Association has also asked the prime minister to allocate around Tk500-700 crore for the traders.
Shop owners had formed a human chain in the market area this morning holding up a banner of the Bangabazar Complex Traders' Association, where they also asked that the market be rebuilt as quickly as possible.
It would have taken less than 1% of the cost of the fire to the traders to ensure such an incident had never happened, said one expert.
M Mahmudur Rashid, secretary general of the Electronics Safety and Security Association of Bangladesh, said, "If it's the Bangabazar market, Tk4-5 crore would have been sufficient to set up a fully automatic sprinkler system. This could extinguish the fire without needing any human or fire service. These technologies are widely used in garment factories," he said.
He also stressed the role of insurance companies.
The Bangabazar fire caused a loss of Tk1,000 crore, according to the shop owners association.
The ripple effect
Mahmuda Rahman, a resident of Old Dhaka, said Bangabazar was her favourite place to shop.
"Most of the shops there were wholesalers. We bought almost everything from there last Eid and planned to do the same this time around. Now, we have to buy from other markets at higher prices," she said.
The Bangabazar complex – which houses the Bangabazar, Gulistan, Mahanagar and Adarsha markets – also attracted a lot of tourists from different countries, who were drawn to the low-price yet good quality of the clothes the market offered.
Many also relied on Bangabazar to make a living through the Internet.
Ariful Islam would buy clothes at wholesale rates and then sell those online.
"We collect clothes as per demand from wholesale shops in Bangabazar. These are sold through online campaigns. Our transactions are easy and profitable. There is no other place in Dhaka to buy all kinds of clothes at such low prices at once. I don't know what buyers like us will do now," he said.
Entrepreneurs also said many upazila level retail traders relied on the Bangabazar for their supplies.
Now they, too, are in for a shock.