Bangladesh records 75 fires a day in 2025: FSCD

Bangladesh recorded 27,059 fire incidents in 2025, averaging 75 fires a day, which claimed 85 lives and injured 267 people, according to the Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD).

Electrical faults were the leading cause, accounting for 9,392 incidents, or 34.71% of the total. Other major causes included burning cigarettes (4,269), stoves (2,909), gas cylinder leaks (920) and gas line leaks (562). Fires were also triggered by gas cylinder explosions, chemical accidents, children playing with fire, hot ashes, electric coils and firecrackers.

The incidents caused property losses estimated at Tk569.97 crore. However, timely firefighting operations helped save property worth Tk3,263.62 crore, the FSCD said.

Residential buildings were the most affected, with 8,705 incidents, representing 32.17% of all fires. Other affected locations included haystacks (3,922), shops (1,800), markets (1,067), shopping malls (617) and garment factories (665). Fires were also reported at hospitals, educational institutions, mosques, temples, slums, power substations and industrial warehouses.

In the transport sector, fires damaged 153 buses, 216 other vehicles, 10 trains, four launches, two ships and one training aircraft.

Fire incidents were most frequent during the dry season, peaking in March (3,522), followed by April (3,035), February (2,885), December (2,724) and January (2,708), with an average of 123 fires per day during these months.

Men accounted for a higher number of casualties, with 197 injured and 46 deaths, compared to 70 injured and 39 deaths among women. The highest number of casualties occurred in residential, chemical and aircraft-related fires.

During the year, the FSCD conducted 1,071 diving operations, rescuing 70 people and recovering 585 bodies. Overall, it responded to 10,140 accidents, rescuing 10,333 injured persons and recovering 1,756 bodies, mostly from road accidents.

To enhance fire prevention, the FSCD surveyed 10,533 buildings, categorising 622 as high-risk, 3,316 as risky and 6,595 as satisfactory. Mobile courts fined 179 organisations a total of Tk1.94 lakh and filed cases against eight others.

The FSCD also organised 15,865 awareness exercises and 3,722 fire drills, and trained more than 173,800 people, including 156,840 garment workers, alongside hundreds of community volunteers.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence urged greater public awareness and strict compliance with fire safety measures to reduce future losses.