The surge in fires we witnessed across Bangladesh over the month of November was a grim reminder of our chronic fire safety failures. With the winter season upon us now, and as per the Fire Service, incidents rise sharply during the dry season, when parched air, flammable materials, and unsafe electrical practices combine to create a tinderbox environment. 

With thousands of fires already reported this year, devastating slums, markets, and even government buildings, we must heed this caution with utmost seriousness. Every fire that breaks out leaves behind far more than charred structures - it is the shattered lives and livelihoods whose costs simply cannot be measured.

To say that we struggle with fire safety is at this point a cruel understatement. Part of the issue is the overcrowding, which we have touched upon in our other editorial today. In slums, where homes are packed tightly and built from highly combustible materials, a single spark can engulf entire communities. 

However, lax enforcement of laws and regulations have only exacerbated the issue; this is observed with alarming regularity in factories, where negligence and poor preparedness look to have become the default. We cannot keep treating fires as accidental nor as inevitabilities. 

These are, for the most part, preventable disasters and such complacency and disregard for lives must end. We expect better from our authorities, and we expect better from our people as well. Ensuring that buildings are equipped with detection systems and having clear evacuation routes are the bare minimum, and simply ensuring these will save a significant number of lives. 

The Fire Service has noted that four months of intensified vigilance during the dry season could potentially halve winter fire accidents. This is a goal worth pursuing, and one we must with urgency.