Recently we have experienced some big Fire incidences in our country. It touched everybody’s attention when we saw that we could not do anything to rescue affected people even after two hours of fire occurrence. The situations compelled me to dig out safety issues in our existing Fire Safety Laws and Acts.

It also inspires me to sort Fire Safety in upcoming BNBC. So far that I have seen, it is quite disappointing to me on Fire Safety issues.

As per upcoming BNBC, building shall not be required Fire Protection Plan up to 33m high (10 storied) for following Building classifications (Clause 5.1.6, Part 4, Chapter 5):

Occupancy A: Residential including Hotel buildings
Occupancy B: Educational Buildings
Occupancy D: Healthcare (Hospitals and others)
Occupancy E: Business (Office, Restaurant, Essential services)
Occupancy F: Mercantile building (up to 930 square meter area)

That means, any Hotel, Hospital, Commercial building, Educational Building, up to 33m high shall not be required Fire Protection Plan.

As per existing BNBC 2006, Residential and Commercial building above 20m and Assembly, Institutional, etc. buildings above 500 square meter area require Fire Protection with Fire Alarm system, Sprinkler, Hydrant Hose Reel, Smoke Exhaust system, etc. Now, it is shifted up to 33m high.

Moreover, in most cases Manually Operated Electric Fire Alarm systems are mentioned. I don’t find any difference between Calling Bell that we usually use at residence or offices with this Manual Fire Alarm System.

There is a major discrepancy in defining High Rise building in our upcoming BNBC. High Rise is defined as more than 10-storey or 33m high.

As per Indian National Building Code High Rise is above 15m in height. As per International Building Code and NFPA, High Rise is above 23m in height.

Our country is very prone to fire due to Dryness of air in Summer. This Dryness is increasing day by day due to use of Deep Tube Well and Barrage in upstream of Rivers. Moreover, population density of Bangladesh is 3 times than India. For any catastrophe, average death toll of our people shall be 3 times than India. So, Life Safety measures and code issues of our country should be more stringent than India.

But, in our upcoming BNBC, Fire Protection enforcement is highly ignored. Moreover, scrutiny of Fire Safety Plan by Fire Authority, which was included in BNBC 2006 (Clause 3.2.10.2) is omitted in upcoming BNBC. So, Fire Department will lose their interest for Fire prevention as they are not involved in Fire Safety Planning. If once this building code is Gazetted, our Buildings will be more unsafe with respect to fire hazard. The other country people will laugh to us. The foreigners will feel unsafe to visit and invest to our country. We will lose branding to international market.

For the sake of our life and property safety, we request the concern authority to review the Code with Fire Professionals. Specially it is required to add Building class A5 (Hotel), B, C, D, E, F, L along with J, G, H, K, and M in Section 5.1.6 (b) of upcoming BNBC. Also proposed to add one sentence in our code “To follow International Building Code and NFPA, which ever is stringent, where local code does not cover”.

We made our Ready Made Garments industries safe. We believe to save other buildings if we can frame an appropriate Code and maintain Compliance.

Engr. Md. Hasmotuzzaman
MEP Consultant & CEO, Utility Professionals
Vice President, Fire Safety Consultants’ Association of Bangladesh