The country has lost properties worth over Tk7006 crore in as many as 2.15 lakh fire incidents over the last 21 years.
A data of the Fire Service and Civil Defense has revealed the information.
It shows the fire incidents over the last 11 years (from 2006 till now) have claimed lives of about 1,600 people and caused injury to 11,000 others.
The casualties from 1996 to 2005 were not stated in the data. If included, the total death and injury toll in the last 21 years could be double.
However, a few of the total incidents were investigated and the findings were submitted to the authorities concerned, but the reports have hardly come to light.
Many of the fire incidents, particularly in slums in various cities, were reported to be "intentional." But the perpetrators are still at large.
Of the 16,858 fire incidents in 2016, some 1,165 occurred in industrial factories, 258 in apparel factories and 170 in slums.
About 5,378 fire incidents took place across the country in 1996. The country saw 5,802 fire incidents in 1997, 5,003 in 1998, 5,207 in 1999, 5,315 in 2000, 5,971 in 2001, 5,404 in 2002, 6,289 in 2003, 7,140 in 2004 and 5,475 in 2005.
After 2005, the number of incidents in a year was not below 9,000. It was 9,542 in 2006, 9,196 in 2007, 9,310 in 2008, 12,182 in 2009, 14,682 in 2010, 15,815 in 2011, 17,504 in 2012, 17,912 in 2013, 17,830 in 2014 and 17,488 in 2015.
The number of the incidents in the current year could not be known from the Fire Service Department but it is not less than the previous year.
Khursid Alam, Senior Station Officer and Chief of Media Cell of the Fire Service Headquarters, told the Daily Observer that the electric short circuit and gas pipe leak were mainly responsible for most of the incidents.
He blamed substandard electric-gas materials and lack of awareness among people for the disasters along with unplanned urbanisation.
Shamsul Alam Shikder, Superintendent of Ware House and Fire Prevention of the Fire Service, echoed his view.
Wishing not to be named, a senior official of the Fire Service said some incidents of fire in the slums were intentional in a bid to grab the land of the slums.
But the officer did not specify any of the slums.
The fire service often submit probe reports to the authorities concerned, particularly the Home Ministry, but none of them has ever been made public.
The investigation reports of at least 12 high-profile fire incidents in the capital city in 2016 were said to have been submitted to the Home Ministry but to no avail.
Sayed Ishtiaq, Prof of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), told a newspaper recently that people with vested interests had always slowed the investigation process after a major fire.
"Even if the probe committees prepare their reports, these people block them and they never come to light," he said.
Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, Secretary of the Home Ministry, could not be contacted despite several attempts.
