Buildings lack the most fundamental safety amenities, basic equipment for fire fighting and emergency evacuation facility in the event of a fire incident while the fire service department is ill-equipped and ill-trained, they said.

A fire escape route without obstruction and regular mock exercise are the basics in safety for every building taller than five stories, said the experts.

Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary of civil engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), also secretary general of Bangladesh Earthquake Society, said it is more crucial to ensure some fundamental safety measures in each building before procuring equipment for fire fighting.

"These measures are not expensive," he said, "But I am sceptical about any building being equipped with these inbuilt measures." However, these measures can be installed in all the existing buildings, added Ansary.

Even if a few buildings may have some basic fire fighting facilities and safety measures, the building occupiers are either unaware of them or do not know how to operate these rudimentary equipment.

Utter helplessness of the fire fighters, law enforcers and the armed forces in rescuing several hundred people from the BSEC building fire on February 26 poignantly pointed at the authorities' negligence to implement basic safety measures in the building. The fire left at least five people dead and hundreds injured.

Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) clearly spells out regular fire drills or mock exercises conducted for the occupants of a building. As per the building rules and BNBC, any building taller than 60 feet (six-story) is considered a high rise.

Ansary said the BNBC provides height and area limitation of a building, accessibility to a building, fire test and fire prevention system, fire lift and sky light. Most crucially, it obliges any building owner to keep a provision for a protected fire zone in a building where the occupants of the building will gather for safety in the event of a fire incident. A building also must have an escape route, fire vent, own water hose and water reserve.

The fire at the BSEC building revealed that the building did not have basic safety measures such as water sprinklers and fire or smoke detection systems. The automatic or manual alarm systems are standard in buildings all over the world.

Any building must have these fundamental safety measures while a high-rise must have more elaborate and sophisticated measures.

Every building should have a fire evacuation plan displayed on each wall and exits clearly marked, a four-member team of fire warden would be selected from the building occupants and work in rotation, said director of Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre (BDPC) Muhammad Saidur Rahman.

There must be a fire drill at least once in a month, he said, the fire wardens would alarm the occupants in person in the event of fire or during the drill. Every building must have a dedicated water reservoir for fire fighting.

Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence Brigadier General Rafiqur Rahman said it is practically impossible to inspect all hazardous buildings including around 3,000 garment factories due to inadequate workforce. "There are lakhs of buildings that require fire safety check but we have only four inspectors for Dhaka and 27 for the whole country."

Responding to why the department does not enforce fire safety measures strictly, he said, "We were able to enforce it in some cases, but it has not been possible in many cases."

The number of hazardous buildings is quite high. Many buildings are in a hazardous state in terms of safety, like the 3,000 garments factories, Rafiq added.

The DG also said they need modern training on fire fighting and more equipment like Turntable Ladders (TTL).

President of Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB) Mubasshar Hussain said gas leakage and electric short circuit are the usual reasons behind fire incidents in the buildings. There must be a fire exit, which everybody must know.

The culture of caging a building with iron fencing and frills here and there must stop to ensure of human safety, he said, a fire escape must be clearly marked, kept free of obstruction and lit with rechargeable lanterns.

"To my knowledge, Sheraton Hotel, Sonargaon Hotel and the Civil Aviation Authority regularly arrange fire drills perhaps to comply with international standards," said Mubasshar.

Architect Iqbal Habib, executive member of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan, said the Urban Development Committee with the help of Rajuk must carry out a survey on the buildings immediately to assess structural stability, fire fighting mechanism, compliance with car parking as well as ensuring compliance with other rules.

Prof Jamilur R Choudhury, vice-chancellor of Brac University and president of Bangladesh Earthquake Society said town planning, architectural design and interior decoration of a building must be taken into consideration for installing safety measures.

Fire service department and Rajuk have to monitor the compliance with safety measures. The city planners at the time of town planning must ensure sources of fire hydrants as an essential means of fire fighting, Choudhury said.

"Building owners rampantly deviate from the original fire exit provision in the building design after having the approval," Choudhury said.

Rajuk Chairman KAM Haroon said the previous rules for buildings did not have detailed and adequate provisions for safety measures in a building or any effective mechanism for supervision.

Building inspectors used to oversee only the external deviation of a building, not any internal deviation, he said, but the newly framed rules of 2006 now in effect provide adequate provisions of safety measures in a building.