It is possible by now you have again started disposing cigarette butts carelessly. Perhaps once again you have begun enjoying a cup of tea/coffee prepared in any corner of your office premises.

It is possible you have postponed rehearsing escape from your building, perhaps much higher and more densely populated than the one attacked by fire that harrowing day. You are once again unperturbed with only one staircase in your building.

It is possible that you have not yet ensured a smoke alarm system, fire-fighting apparatus, or sufficient water in your building. Most likely you do not even notice the stacking of furniture and rubbish impending escape along the corridor.

It is possible you have not considered having any trained personnel to marshal an emergency situation, someone who knows how to operate the life-saving apparatus that perhaps decorate your wall. In all probability you still do not know the telephone number of the nearest fire station.

It is possible you are still apathetic to such preventive, precautionary and control measures.

It is however NOT impossible for a fire of devastating dimensions to occur in the very place wherein you are reading this paper. The fact is a fire can strike anyone anywhere and at anytime. It is therefore only advisable that one should be prepared and the best preparation is to live with the constant fear that fire can and will strike you -- in your protected (?) home, in a busy shopping centre, on a crowded train, in a full-house cinema hall, at a merry marriage marquee…

The gruesome experience from the fire at the BSEC Bhaban can possibly be best described as a wakeup call for future calamities, for we have made our buildings more dangerous by going higher and larger in the past decade, more flammable in view of the finish materials and furniture, and more difficult to escape from by making them enclosed for air-conditioning.

Knowing the possible causes of fire can prevent one from starting. Installing safety measures can ensure preparedness. Equipping premises with control measures can build confidence of being able to fight a fire, in case.

There are many causes of fire: (a) smoking materials and matches, (b) defective or improperly operated heating equipment, (c) wilful attack, (d) careless disposal of waste products, (e) defective or improperly installed and operated electrical equipment and services, (f) friction and static sparks, (g) careless handling of flammable liquids and vapours, (h) use of open flame appliances, (i) repairs and alteration hazards, (j) welding, (k) explosion hazard from dust, and (l) exposure from other buildings on fire. Obviously the list is not exhaustive. It never is.

Following a fire one of the first things we do is to raise a finger at a cause, usually the poor 'short circuit', so that the blame apparently is not on a person still alive. But the fact is proper investigation can lead to pinpointing the person whose negligence or adventure led to the flash.

The next time there is a fire, and there will be, it will be relevant to turn the finger towards you, for you are responsible either as building owner, user or architect.

Whatever the cause of a fire starting and expanding, if there is loss of human life due to a fire, the responsibility must lie with either the architect and/or building owner/user because there was no means of escape. That is precisely what happened at the BSEC Bhaban that ill-fated day. The victims could not escape.

It is sometimes the case that the architect has provided alternate route for escape in the design of a building but the owner has tampered with it, but not always. Buildings designed and supervised by architects have been found faulty in terms of design for fire.

Also common is that alternate means of egress exists in a building by design but the owner/user has blocked them in the name of security. The more secure we make our buildings, the more unsafe they are.

What is then to be done? A positive starting point would be to live in constant fear that fire can and will strike. In view of that premise, it is common sense to be cautious and prepared in each individual's or group's undertaking.

How? Survey your building immediately to identify blockages that will hinder escape of users. Assess the risk of your premises by design and usage. Employ more security staff to provide safety such that buildings are not encaged passively. Ensure first-hand fire-fighting measures, such as appropriate extinguishers and equipment to apply water (hosepipe/sprinklers). Consider the need to contact the fire services. Do you know the telephone number? Wonder how the fire engine will reach your building. Think where from they will get the water to douse a fire.

It is naïve to depend entirely on the fire services to save lives; they cannot, because in a death from a fire accident the victim has first suffocated from smoke; that is within the first couple of minutes. The internationally-accepted general escape time for design for fire is two and a half minutes. People must escape from a fire to a place of safety within that time. Under no circumstances can help from fire services be expected within that time (or even much later) in view of our narrow and congested road, traffic jam, and distance.

Fire services can however protect property and save people who have taken refuge in a designed safe place of a building attacked by fire, as was done so heroically at the BSEC fire, although the roof was not so designed. Every building should have refuge cells located every few floors or even within a floor depending on the height and area. Given the right equipment fire services personnel are trained to rescue people in such situations, but then a building must have alternate routes (horizontally and vertically), fire lift and other control measures.

The discovery of the dead NTV security personnel in the building well after the BSEC fire was doused enlarges on the concept of a mandatory designated Assembly Point for every building. Had the victims of that fire been expected (by previous drill) to assemble at a place away from the building, the security man would have been declared a missing person and an earlier life-saving operation could have been mounted. Unfortunately, our present miscomprehension has cost a valuable life. There could be more in the future.

The threat of fire has to be understood and tackled at individual, family, group, corporate and public levels. The time to wake up and fear the possible devastation of a fire is now.

Behind every fire as well as its control there has to be the action or inaction of a man. That man could be you.

Dr. Nizamuddin Ahmed is Professor, Department of Architecture, BUET.