720 educational institutions in Dhaka fire-prone

National Ideal College, a popular educational institution in the capital's Khilgaon, has over 1,600 students attending classes in two separate residential buildings.

Each building -- one eight-storey and another six – has a staircase only five-feet wide, making it risky to use in the event of a fire incident.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence marked the institution, established in 2001,  "risky" in its latest inspection report released last year.

The principal of the college, Maksud Uddin, claimed they were not informed by the authorities that their institution is at risk of fire.

"We have fire extinguishers on every floor. There is a reserve water tank on the roof," he told this newspaper.

This is just one of 720 schools, colleges, and universities in the capital that have been marked "risky" for potential fire hazards.

The fire service inspected 801 educational institutions in Dhaka for five years, from 2017 to 2022, and found 64 to be "highly risky".

The remaining 16 institutions had satisfactory fire safety measures in place, said the report.

Across the country, the fire service inspected 1,527 schools, colleges, and universities, including Dhaka's, in that period and found 336 to be "highly risky" and 1,072 "risky".

The fire service classifies buildings as "highly risky" or "risky" based on certain criteria, such as the number of staircases for entries and exits, width of the staircases, the number of fire extinguishers present, availability of fire hydrants, and the capacity of water reservoirs.

Bangladesh Government (BG) Press High School was marked "highly risky".

Located in Tejgaon -- the industrial area of the capital -- the school has two buildings, one with three floors and another with four.

Around 1,200 students of the school use a single staircase in each building.

During a visit on Tuesday, these correspondents found no fire extinguishers, emergency exits, fire buckets, or fire hydrants on the school campus, though the school was listed as "risky" for potential fire hazards since 2017.

Anjuman Ara Laiju, the school's headmaster, was surprised that the school was listed as risky.

"We were unaware of the potential risks. We would have taken steps to rectify the situation if we had known earlier."

Lt Col Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, director (operation & maintenance) of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, said there was no way the school authorities were not informed as the inspection itself requires approval from them.

Dinomoni Sharman, deputy director of the fire service, reiterated, "It's not possible to issue letters to all the institutions. But we describe the risky condition in the presence of the headmasters during our inspection.

"We try to make them aware of the safety measures [that need to be taken] like multiple staircases, presence of fire extinguishers and fire buckets."

In 2018, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology in Tejgaon was also marked "highly risky". There are over 6,000 students and around 2,500 of them attend classes regularly.

Although the university has fire extinguishers, a number of those were found with no expiry date stickers.

Ahsan Habib, an engineer supervising the structure, told The Daily Star, "May be the stickers aren't there, but all the extinguishers have expiry dates.

"There was also no central fire safety alarm earlier. We have already submitted an updated fire safety plan to the fire service. Once it's approved, we will take proper steps."

Lt Col Tajul Islam said, "We don't have the authority to conduct drives by ourselves. We do it jointly with Rajuk and the city corporation concerned.

"We are working tirelessly to create awareness among students by providing training at different schools and colleges."

The Daily Star found two government schools -- Narinda Govt High School and Dhaka Govt Muslim High School in Laxmibazar -- with fire safety equipment.

The fire service issued warnings to these institutions five years ago, but no measures were taken.

Md Delowar Hossain Mazumder, chief engineer at Education Engineering Department, told The Daily Star, "We handed over the school and college buildings around 20 to 25 years ago. Fire safety issues like stairs, entries, and exits were not on the list nor discussed.

"However, these measures will be taken during the constructions of new school buildings."

The Education Engineering Department is tasked with the development of educational infrastructures.

About taking measures in the older buildings, he said, "Once we hand over a building, the sole responsibility to maintain it lies with the school authorities. We can provide technical support if they seek our assistance."

Delowar also said they have informed the Rajuk about the fire safety issues in school and colleges. "Rajuk will now see whether the building needs complete re-construction or if retrofitting is enough."

Anisur Rahman Miah, chairman of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), said most of the schools in the capital are located in residential areas.

"We took initiatives several times but had to backtrack considering ongoing school activities. We have decided to make it obligatory for school authorities to set up separate steel staircases for emergency exits."