Country witnesses 26,659 fire incidents, 140 deaths in 2024: Fire Service

Highlights

• 26,659 incidents; 140 dead, 341 injured
• 73 fires nationwide
• Electrical faults (34%), bidi-cigarettes (16%), stoves (11%)
• Tk447 crore in losses; Tk1,974 crore saved
• Homes (36 killed), gas cylinders (8 killed), restaurants (47 killed)

The country witnessed 26,659 incidents of fire last year in which 140 people, including two firefighters, were killed and 341 others injured. 

"On an average 73 fire incidents took place per day across the country in 2024. The fire mostly originated from electric short circuit, burning pieces of bidi-cigarettes, stoves and gas," said a press release of the Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD).  

These fires caused damage of properties worth around Tk447 crore and the fire service saved property worth over Tk1,974 crore across the country during the period. 

As many as 37 departmental workers were injured during firefighting and two firefighters were killed while carrying out firefighting and rescue work.

During the firefighting operation, 34 fire service vehicles were vandalized and 8 vehicles were set on fire by unruly crowd. 

The fire service said that out of 26,659 fire incidents, 9,069 (33.98%) were from electrical faults while 4,139 (15.52%) from burning bits of bidi-cigarettes, 3,056 (11.46%) from stoves, 789 (2.95%) by unruly people, 759 (2.84%) by children playing with fire, 735 from hot ashes, 704 from gas cylinder leakage, 465 from gas line leakage, 44 (0.45%) from gas cylinder explosion, 455 from coils, and 64 from burning fireworks/lanterns/crackers.

As per the available statistics at the Fire Service, the highest number of fire incidents occurred in homes/residential buildings in 2024. A total of 7,131 fires broke out in homes across the country, which is 26.74% of the total fires. 

In addition, there were 4,513 (16.92%) fires in haystacks, 2,411 (9.04%) fires in kitchens, 1,887 in shops, 911 in markets, 481 in shopping malls, 494 in factories other than the garment industry, 236 in garment industry establishments, 211 in power substations, 153 in multi-storey buildings (above 6 floors), 150 in restaurants and hotels, 129 in KPIs and government institutions, 126 in hospitals and clinics, 123 in jute warehouses and jute mills, 85 in religious institutions, 84 in slums, and 78 in educational institutions, it said.

The country witnessed 268 fire incidents in vehicles, 114 in buses, 13 in trains, and three in launches across the country in last year.

Most incidents of fire occurred in February (2,737) while 3,421 in March, 3426 in April, and 2,686 in May, 2514 in January, 1,427 in July, and 2,163 in August.

"On an average 102 incidents of fire occurred per day in these four months (February, March, April, May)," the fire service said.

Out of 341 injured people across the country, 237 were men and 104 were women, and out of 140 killed, 107 were men and 33 were women. The most casualties occurred in fires in houses/residential buildings (72 injured, 36 killed), gas cylinder explosions (53 injured, 8 killed), and restaurants and hotels (78 injured, 47 killed).

To strengthen fire prevention measures across the country, the FSCD operated 147 mobile courts in 2024 and 149 organizations were fined Tk 25.832 crore through these mobile courts. Cases have been filed against three organizations.

To reduce fire accidents, the FSC D conducted 18,983 drills, 3,036 surveys, and 15,683 public relations events in 2024 to raise awareness among people across the country. 

In addition, 1,47,717 people were trained through 7,769 training courses on fire safety across the country. On the other hand, in 2024, 1,56,840 garment workers were trained through 3,921 training courses in garment factories alone.