Sitakunda fire was a ‘structural murder’: activists

Rights activists at a programme yesterday said last Saturday night's fire, which triggered a series of explosions, at BM Container depot in Chattogram's Sitakunda was a structural murder and that the owners of the depot extended little cooperation to government agencies in handling the disaster.

"So far, we have not seen any person from the owners' side inspecting the site. Even, they have not provided adequate information to firefighters," said Rezaur Rahman Lenin, human rights activist and researcher at a virtual meeting titled "Sitakunda fire structural killings: Civil protests and reactions" on Saturday.

There was negligence from government agencies too as no owner was accused in the incident. The kind of fire safety plan that was supposed to be in place to prevent and deal with fire did not exist or was not effective, he added.

Had the recommendations made in the investigation reports of previous fire incidents been made public and implemented, and the culprits been punished, the "structural murder" could have been avoided, said researcher Maha Mirza.

Prof Harun Ur Rashid said, "Fire service personnel were not informed of the exact stockpile of hazardous chemicals, which caused the fire to go out of control and caused so much damage and casualties. Most of the fire-fighters who entered the site in the first phase were killed and injured."

Professor Anu Muhammad said in order to increase the capacity of the fire brigade, it is necessary to increase the number of labour inspectors to ensure a safe working environment in the factory.

Speaking on the occasion, CR Abrar, convener of the organisation, said if there is a need to pay compensation after such an accident, one thing must be kept in mind – compensation must be paid twice as much as the person could have earned if he was alive.

The programme was moderated by layer Jyotirmoy Barua.