Besides, the fire causes huge loss of property.

Local people and fire service authorities blamed the unplanned construction of roads, lanes and housing of the slums for the fire incidents.

The area could not draw attention of the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) or other authorities after it comes under the city corporation area during the Ershad regime, they said.

There are too many zigzag roads and lanes linking the entire ward with other wards like East Bakalia, West Bakalia, Dewanbazar and Bakshirhat.

The roads are Boubazar DC Road, Mia Khan Road, Abu Jafar Road, Ismail Foyz Road, Hazi Mansur Ali Road, Hafijia Road and Ibrahim Mia Lane.

These narrow and damaged roads and hundreds of lanes increase the extent of damages and casualties and the suffering of residents as the fire fighting units cannot reach the spot during the fire incidents.

The fire fighters faced serious difficulties to control the recent deadly incident of fire that left 21 people burnt alive at Khalek Sawdagar Colony at Boubazar area on March 6.

The deaths could be checked if the fire fighters would reach the spot immediately, said Shariful Islam, Station In-charge of nearby Chandanpura Fire Station.

The local people said the demand for construction and expansion of the busy roads and lanes to the authorities goes unheeded.

Thousands of people, including garment workers, maids, rickshaw- pullers, push cart pullers, vendors, hotel employees and owners of small shops live in the congested slums, built without any plan.

There is no enough passage for entrance in these slums where houses are built side by side in a very congested way.

In most of the cases, the slum people have no bathroom, toilet and other facilities where they are to pay around Tk 800 to Tk 1200 per month for only a 10 square feet room as rent, sources said.

There are around 200 slums at Boubazar. The slums accommodate over 200 shanties, mostly of tin-roof and thatched, at Bajal Colony, around 200 at Hasan Member Colony, 150 at Kabir Colony and 100 at Jafar Colony.

There were only nine shanties in the Khalek Soudagar Colony where most of the deaths occurred, warning a bigger casualty if a fire incident happened at large slum, said Abdul Aziz, a dweller of Kabir Colony.

There are 200 slums at Nur Hossain Balur Math area, 100 at Ibrahim Mia Lane and 30 at Osi Mia Road in South Bakalia ward.

Local ward commissioner Yasin Chowdhury Asu said a rickshaw can hardly enter these areas.

Hundreds of shops have been set up illegally on the roads at Mia Khan Road, occupying the government khas land, narrowing the main roads, he said.

Around 300 godowns and shops of jhut (rag) have been set up at Boubazar and about 5000 labourers work here.

Illegal jhut godowns and shops that run without any licence in many of the congested slums or around the slums are main causes of the devastating fire.

Besides, fire fighters also face water crisis during the incident for lack of water bodies in the area like other city areas.

There were around 60 to 70 ponds and four canals, including Rajakhali Khal, Mirja Khal, Birij Khal and Hafijia Khal in the ward, said Irfanul Hoque, a resident of Boubazar.

But there is no pond in the area now and the canals are occupied by the land grabbers, he added.