The country has just witnessed a devastating tragedy in Cox’s Bazar when a fire incident engulfed a tourist resort with the death toll standing at ten.
Young people who went to the sea-side town like thousands of others to enjoy nature and the beauty of the sea will now come back, not rejuvenated but as corpses.
A video of the fire, shot very early in the morning and possibly before the fire service arrived, has gone viral on social media, showing helpless people standing by the inferno, screaming for some divine intervention.
A death trap without emergency exits
The video is heart-rending no doubt because it shows how life, even in this age of modern technology making our lives easier and safer, can simply unravel in the face of a primal force.
Naturally, the first question to emerge – did the resort have proper fire extinguishing facilities?
Let’s assume the blaze spread fast and became so overpowering that tackling it with hand- held fire extinguishers was impossible.
But there should have been an emergency exit of some sort in case of swift evacuation.
From the mobile footage of the burning structure, it was clear that referring to it as a resort is a total misnomer.
From what we lay people understand, a resort is a tourist recreation facility on a large sprawling land with enough space between buildings supported by a comprehensive support staff, familiar with the basic principles of hotel management and tourism.
Reportedly, as soon as the fire broke out, those working at the so-called tourist resort fled the scene.
Coming back to the structures that caught fire, from the mobile footage it was clear that the buildings did not have any space between them, thus making a swift exit difficult.
Sadly, such structures which lack rudimentary safety facilities are operating with impunity and worse still, people who stay in them often do not raise the issues if they spend their holidays and go back without any trouble.
To be honest, if this accident did not happen then this resort would have continued operating and those who stayed there would have gone back to their daily lives, not bothered about the safety shortcomings.
In the last fifteen years, there’s been a trend to move away from the Cox’s Bazaar main city to develop private resorts far away from the main town with the appealing tagline of privacy topped with pristine nature and an isolated beach.
While the concept of going out of the main town to dive into an idyllic setting is often too hard to resist, the fact that many such remote establishments are without adequate safety measures, make them vulnerable to accidents.
At this moment we are dealing with a fire incident, but just imagine, someone missing at sea or an unpleasant occurrence resulting in a fatal injury or attack from an animal or a serpent requiring swift attention.
Desperate to unwind, we tend to ignore warning signs
This may sound harsh, but we need to take part of the blame for the continued operation of tourist homes and resorts without proper safety precautions.
In our desperation to get the ‘best budget deal’ or any place to stay during the high season of winter, the issues about safety are conveniently set aside.
We just need a roof over our head for the night is the attitude of many tourists who visit the sea-side city, thus emboldening hotel, resort owners to compromise on essential safety features.
In the video of the recent fire incident, we notice several people, possibly tourists residing in the stricken resort wailing outside by the road, unable to do anything.
This indicates that the resort did not have equipment to tackle fire related incidents.
International rules about safety of tourists explicitly state that any remote hotel or resort must have equipment in addition to general fire extinguishers.
Sadly, the structures on fire looked more like a shanty town than a tourist resort.
As winter is almost upon us, the tourism season will begin in Cox’s Bazar, with people from all over Bangladesh heading to the sea side city and adjacent areas for holiday.
As a result, the hotels will be filled to the brim while resorts outside the main town will also get brisk business.
While for the hotel/resort owners, this season, lasting from November till end of March is deemed a bonanza, the safety issues need to be enforced rigorously by the authority.
As I said earlier, tourists, in their desperation to get rooms to stay, decide to ignore the safety matters, thus exposing themselves to risks.
There have been reports in the past that people often paid to live in ‘any room’ available, meaning they were also willing to rent rooms without proper ventilation.
In the recent tragedy, the structure was reportedly made of wood, a flammable item, which only facilitated the spread of the blaze.
The owner of the place, while advertising the wood-based, eco-friendly place should have also kept quick exit spots for all rooms, preferably doors that can be broken.
Strangely, in Bangladesh, the emergency axe, kept along with fire extinguishers to break open doors in case of emergency, is not seen in most places.
Fire extinguishers, rope ladder, axe and wall rammers are basic items for any hotel.
As we mourn the deaths of the tourists, let’s hope that before the season sets in, Cox’s Bazar administration cracks down on establishments lacking fire equipment, proper first aid kits, a resident doctor and, for bigger resorts, an ambulance.
