In the heart of Old Dhaka's Nawabpur, a 20ft-by-30ft room houses a handful of machinery.

Huddled together in the dimly lit room, a group of five workers toil with age-old copper collected from ships.

They cut them into various sizes with a rounding machine, use acid-water to make them gleam and then transform them into electric wires and cables with "insulation".

Insulation in this case is name only as it does little to keep electricity from transferring through.

Such unscrupulous businesses operate without any authorisation or quality control, resulting in the rampant use of low-quality and counterfeit electric cables, which ultimately increase the risk of electric short circuits -- one of the leading causes of fires in the country.

According to the fire service, 38 percent of the fire incidents last year were due to short circuits, owing to the widespread use of counterfeit and low-quality cables and equipment.

A recent data released by the Fire Service and Civil Defence shows how short circuits were the cause of fires in previous years as well.

Experts said counterfeit products are sold with the logos of expensive brands in new packaging in shady factories, deceiving both the brands and customers and posing significant fire hazards. 

Meanwhile, many low-quality products are also being imported from abroad.

The use of these products is rampant as customers can get them at cheaper rates and fail to realise that it is not the original brand used in the logo. Crooked traders then make a profit out of this, they added.

The use of such cables is higher in the areas with lower- and middle-class people, including the slums.

Questioning Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution's (BSTI) ability to prevent the marketing of counterfeit products, the fire experts said if the government agencies could strongly monitor the standard of electric equipment, the number of fire incidents would come down significantly.

According to BSTI, there are nearly 80 companies licensed to manufacture wires and cables, while law enforcement agencies say around 100 unlicensed factories are selling counterfeit products.

Many of them are in the capital's Bangshal, Wari, Kadamtali, Nawabpur, Siddikbazar, Jatrabari, Demra, and Keraniganj areas, while some can also be found in Narayanganj, Savar and Gazipur.

Hafizur Rahman, deputy assistant director of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, said, "It's almost like people are buying death traps when they turn to such low-quality cable and equipment."

These are the products fire fighters mostly find during short-circuit fire incidents, he added.

The wires and cables are found incorrectly installed, he said.

Last year, 24,102 fire incidents took place in the country, and of them, 9,275 occurred due to electric short circuits, according to the fire service.

At least 98 people lost their lives in all fires in the country last year. 

Hafizur said it is difficult for many people to recognise the low quality of the counterfeit cables, which start out thick but get thinner as they go along.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Abdul Hasib Chowdhury, an associate professor of the electrical and electronic engineering department at Buet, said when substandard cables and circuit breakers are used, heat is produced even during regular electricity flow.

If new power connections are added to the wiring of building, it will exceed the wiring capacity and lead to short circuits.

Instead of electrical engineers, the electrical design of a house is typically done by electricians, who usually do not adhere to standard practices.

"The authorities concerned should monitor the market and the factories. I doubt whether the BSTI has the capacity to enforce action against these low-quality and counterfeit electronic equipment," Abdul Hasib said.

An electric equipment trader in Mirpur said a branded cable, which is mostly used at residential houses and shops, costs Tk 8,000 per bundle, whereas the fake one costs Tk 5,000 – which is preferred by many due to the lower cost.

Law enforcers, along with BSTI, sometimes conduct drives against electric cable factories manufacturing fake products, and mobile courts take action. But the illicit businesses continue as the demand for cheaper products is very high.

Rab-10, which covers most of the areas where these factories are located, conducted 25 drives against counterfeit product manufacturers last year.

Just two weeks ago, it raided some factories in Jatrabari, Wari and Keraniganj.

Rab Executive Magistrate Mazharul Islam, who led several mobile court drives, said these traders do not have any BSTI certification. They make the products locally and without any quality control.

Explaining the condition of cables, he said that in a ship, copper wires are used for 50-60 years. With time and use, the wires' resistance increase and their capacity drops.

These traders first collect the age-old copper of ships from some places in Shyampur, which it then cut into pieces and put into moulds made from old plastic, making the insulations not fire resistant, he said.

"The BSTI-approved cables have fire resistance at every alternate foot. Even if they melt from heat, it stops after a foot due to the resistance cap in the next one. But the fraudulent traders do not even have the capacity to maintain the quality of their products," Mazharul said.

"What's worrying is that they even use aluminium and acid-water to make it gleam or look polished," he said, adding that after manufacturing, these are supplied to Nawabpur -- a hub for low-quality electric wires.

Rafiqul Islam Rony, director of marketing and sales at BRB Cable Industries Limited, said unless regulating agencies ensure frequent monitoring with proper action, the counterfeit market will keep running.

Reazul Haque, deputy director of BSTI, said, "We can't stop it alone. So, we take help from Rab and other law enforcement agencies."