Imagine going to a mall with your friends and family for a long-awaited occasion coming up; you are surely not the only person being excited to be there, or enjoying your time spent laughing and walking around, experiencing new things every now and then. Or it could just be the opposite of a situation so jubilant. Note that not everyone enjoys walking around an enormous and spacious mall; not to mention the uncivilized crowds sometimes.
However the mood, imagine yourself being complete trapped in middle of nowhere in a crowd, separated from your group of people. And out of the blue you see people running out, a tension forming in the area. And then being completely oblivious to whatever the surrounding, people start running and shouting about; something you probably can't make out in your mind for all the crowds.
You stand there awkwardly, watching people bumping into each other with not a care in the world and running the other direction. And the moment the sirens go loose with the sprinklers, the ground simply moves from beneath you and you know exactly what to do, but at the same time your mind stops working.
All you can think of is the unfortunate that fell on you and the other panicked ones, and mere thought of running away; and worse, the suffocation. While all this unravels right before you, the thought of protecting your loved ones aches in your heart. And even if you are alone, and manage get nearest to any exits, you'll surely never want to encounter the incident that caused the riot. No person would want to get themselves trapped in the poisonous smoke that engulfs its unprepared territory. It would just mark your horrified steps as your last ones.
However, being outside does get the rescue teams contacts as fast as possible. A mall usually has most of the space occupied, and most people would notice the incident almost as soon as it is shown on the surface. But what about at the quietest of nights, when the unfortunate explosion breaks the soothing silence; or forgetting an explosion, just mere screams of the suffered filling a building's story that some call their "beloved home".
I don't think I can come up with any way to describe their pain and fear of being burned alive; let alone watch their own loved ones living with the most despicable scars and undying agony. Every victim is left utterly traumatized; and can probably not view any other situation too normally.
Surely no day passes by without a soul coming in contact with God itself. No matter what corner, no matter what, no matter when; it's a given that people pass by with each new dawn. Someone could be dying as you read this, or might have already kissed death by now.
Even so, I firmly believe sudden deaths are the most brutal, strongly painful at heart; and such in the ruthless hands of the ruling flames? I wouldn't be able to comprehend much about the distress. But to think that people are being constant victims of such terrible disasters, one after another, just days after, is way more awful and cruel to imagine.
The very incident that started this uproar about the flaming disasters probably started from the horrific accident at Dhaka, Chawkbazar. The true case was that whatever little explosion might've caused the alarum, the buildings that were used as warehouses for chemical loading. It is probably illegal to keep such dangerous substances so close to people who live there carefree. But somehow, this law was overlooked and even by now, there surely many more buildings stocked up under people's homes.
However, it was, the fire caught on 21st of February, and was certainly a horrifying one. Thread by thread, little by little the fire engulfed the little area resulting in a brutal wildfire. The case was looked into deeper once it was acknowledged that the only items that got get it so worse was the unsafe usage of chemicals in the warehouse; I'd say the unpredicted flames took control of every nook and cranny. As far as I know, it kept growing and began taking shape as the worse for mostly hours.
Unraveling to the mass media, more than 70 people died, and many were left injured. The aftermath of the incident was much cruel. Every hour someone would turn up the TV or scroll through social media I'd hear the news anchors blabbing about one thing over and over; helpless people mourning their beloved ones' death. At this point I couldn't possible stop my thought from going wild and kept thinking how much they could've suffered. I was surely not there, but even so I could hear the screams of the victims.
But fire incidents didn't stop just there. Each day the news channels came with new fresh topics about numerous other fire breakouts in other areas; in the same district. For days people felt pretty insecure; who wouldn't? It almost left a big impact on people.
And as far I know, there was another very 'recent' fire incident; at Gulshan's Delta Life tower. Much hadn't been leaked for the firefighters had taken strict actions and quite a number of people were rescued and that a relief. However the situation or statements, numerous buildings were looked onto by the government whether they were storing chemicals or anything deadly; some were removed, but I still don't believe every citizen is very safe.
As I go deeper in this case of natural disasters, I am perfectly aware that every dawn comes with new things; be it positive or negative. For sure fate is unpredictable, and what's been decided cannot be changed for a moment; but how wonderful and blissful the world would be if these accidental disasters stopped; if the law was obeyed properly and how bless would we be if the government itself as careful as we need them to be.
Even if it were a little, lesser lives would be lost; and no one would have their regrets. However leaving everything to nature and government wouldn't do us any good. I firmly believe taking steps and measures ourselves would be much more effective than waiting for a slow declaration; some speech delivered with such 'power' it would continue for a week then the issue won't exist. My heart throbs as I recall little news update that burn in my memory. Oh how I pray our poor security and govern authorities would be much focused on the country's 'necessary' upgrades.
The writer is a student of class six, Dhanmondi Tutorial
-Nawfa Nanziba Omama
Latest News