State Minister for Disaster Management Enamur Rahman has said they have realised that the government needs heavy machinery and a bigger budget to ensure fire extinguishing system.
“We wanted to procure equipment worth Tk 10.00 billion. But after Churihatta and FR Tower fires, we understood that this budget is insufficient,” he said.
“We’ve realised that we need heavy machinery and a bigger budget to ensure fire extinguishing system,” the state minister added.
Enamur made the remarks on Tuesday after meeting his ministry’s probe committee and representatives of various ministries, reports UNB.
The junior minister also admitted that the Fire Service and Civil Defence lacks equipment.
He said an electric short-circuit on the eighth floor of FR Tower in Banani sparked the deadly fire that killed 26 people last month.
“The fire spread to the ninth and 10th floors. A number of people died because of smoke in the 11th, 12th and 13th floors,” he said.
Seventy-one people were killed after a deadly blaze swept through several buildings in Old Dhaka in late February. Many of the capital’s buildings are unplanned and lack proper fire-fighting equipment.
