An evening at Dhaka's 'extremely risky' shopping centres 

It was roughly an hour after iftar when we reached Jahanara Imam Sarani to explore markets in Dhaka that are at high risk of catching fires. By the time we got there, a restaurant on the ground floor of Noor Mansion Shopping Centre had already caught fire. 

The list of consecutive fires in the last seven days is long enough to scare people to their core. When the incident happened, everyone panicked, as just two days back the New Super Market - in the vicinity of Noor Mansion - had also been ravaged by a vicious fire. Only a few hours prior to the Noor Mansion blaze, the BGB Market in the capital's Uttara had been damaged in a fire as well. 

But it was a lucky day for this shopping centre and several other markets. When the fire broke out at Noor Mansion — a market that the fire department had earlier identified as at high risk of fires — the fire service arrived quickly, and the fire had also been somewhat controlled by then.

Moreover, on Monday evening, temperatures had slightly dropped in Dhaka and humidity had crossed 60%. People roaming outside the market, as well as us, were sweating. 

Since the beginning of April, Dhaka, witnessing its highest temperature in 58 years, had become a hotspot for fires at shopping centres, starting with the Bangabazar inferno. 

Following several deadly infernos, the fire department on April 16 identified 58 "risky" and nine "extremely risky" markets in the capital, which include Gawsia, Alauddin Market in Lalbagh, Shahidullah Market, and Shakil Anwar Tower in Chawkbazar, Bangabazar, New Super Market, Sharif Market, and Masha Katara 22 Market in Sadarghat. 

The list appears to have made an impression on people. 

As we went from one market to another on a prime Eid shopping day, we expected massive crowds, including inside the Gawsia market. But the turnout was much smaller than usual, with only a few hundred shoppers — a normal crowd for Gawsia. 

Inside the connecting alley between Noor Mansion and Gawsia, the shopkeepers mostly sat idle. The hanging electric wires above the aisle looked unwelcoming, if not outright terrifying. 

"Sales are very poor; there are no customers," said Mamun, a shopkeeper in Gawsia market. "Ever since the fire at New Super Market, customers are scared — they don't come anymore." 

Mohammad Liton, another shopkeeper at New Anarkali, said they have many pending bills that they cannot pay because of poor customer turnout.

When asked if he was aware that the fire department had listed this market as "extremely risky", he said, "I know. I am also scared. But we will have to go on with life anyways." 

Jahangir Alam, on the Noor Mansion side of the alley, was selling jewellery. He said the "negative publicity" regarding market safety, ahead of Eid, was a problem for their business. 

"Please don't write anything about the markets before Eid anymore, for our business' sake," he said. "Write after Eid, that's fine. This is our peak business season, it will hurt us," he added. 

Most of the shopkeepers said they were confident that nothing bad would happen and their buildings — Noor Mansion, Gawsia, and several others in the vicinity — were "safe". 

The fire department, however, disagrees. 

They have made several suggestions to the Gawsia market owners' committee to improve its fire safety. The market committee president Kamrul Hasan Babu said they are working on the suggestions. 

The narrow alleys all across the market and its seemingly never-ending aisles, with no clear exits, are likely to confuse anyone when a fire breaks out. When bigger crowds do show up, a little incident may turn very deadly in such a congested place.  

 Dinmoni Sharma, Dhaka divisional head of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence who was part of the team that inspected this market, had also mentioned the narrow stairs and hanging wires as reasons for why they had marked the shopping hub as 'extremely risky'. 

Kamrul Hasan Babu, however, defended the safety of his market and claimed that there was a "conspiracy" afoot against the markets catering to the middle-class people. He questioned who benefited from such "negative publicity". 

"They [fire department] gave us some recommendations; we are working on it. We cannot just do it overnight," Babu said, adding that this market "is the safest" market here. "A team from Buet certified this," he claimed. 

Other markets in Chawkbazar and Lalbagh also had small crowds that night. 

But while visiting Khilgaon Taltola Market and Mouchak Market, which are not listed among the "too risky" markets, we found a crowd of people packed in somewhat similar narrow aisles. 

"We shop every Eid in Bangabazar, New Market and Gawsia. But this year, there were fires and the markets were shut. That is why we are purchasing everything from here," said a customer at Khilgaon market. 

When we mentioned to her that the markets had opened up in the New Market area, she said she still chooses not to go there in fear of fires. 

Several customers in these two markets said they chose different shopping centres this year because of the two major fires in Bangabazar and New Super Market.

However, the crowded narrow aisle of these other markets did not look any safer either. They served as a constant reminder that one wrong spark during peak market hour could claim a lot more than just the investment of the traders.