A young woman recently lost her life in a fire incident in the capital. The woman was living in the Jamtho of a building located near the fire station. The building did not have a fire exit. Unable to use the stairways, she climbed to the roof of the building for safety where she languished for quite some time awaiting help. The incident brings to light several issues that require urgent attention.
A residential building caught fire on 11th June in the heart of the capital resulting not only in loss of property but in the death of a 22-year-old woman. Her 24-year-old husband was able to escape with minor injuries despite having to jump off the roof of a four-story building.
The irony is that the building was just a few hundred metres from the fire station.
The husband, Pema Zangpo, says there was smoke everywhere and they felt the fire had reached the main door of their apartment. With nowhere to go, they escaped through the window onto the roof of the building. He says they waited several minutes on the roof for help before finally giving up and deciding to climb down.
“We called out many times for help from the roof, but nobody could do anything. So we paced here and there for about 15-20 minutes. We were told that help would be coming soon, that the fire trucks would arrive soon. But nothing happened. Our feet were burning because the fire was growing and we had also forgotten to put on our shoes because of fear. After some time, I saw people placing ladders. There was no other option so she tried to slowly reach for the ladder but then her leg slipped. She was left hanging from the roof for quite some time,” said Pema Zangpo, a victim of the Changzamtok fire incident.
Some of the residents and a few foreign workers tried to help by holding out a blanket to catch them.
As the woman fell, she landed partly on the blanket and partly on the concrete floor. She was immediately rushed to the hospital but died due to internal injuries. Many feel the woman could have and should have been saved.
“We could have more facilities than this, just not relying on a ladder that is being brought by some residents or someone else. We should have done better than this because there were firefighters, there were police and there were other options. We could have saved a life,” said an eyewitness.
“We tried but we could not save them. We were in our rooms and then we came out and saw a man and a woman on the building roof screaming for help. We were not allowed to go there but we forced our way there. We held out a blanket, but unfortunately, we could not save the lady. One of our men broke his foot and he had to go home. But we are sad that we could not save the woman,” said Asidul Haque, a construction worker.
Amid public backlash for the slow response, the Fire and Rescue Services Division of the RBP said they are under-equipped.
An official said that the tankers become empty after 7 to 10 minutes of use and need to be refilled. And since there are no fire hydrant facilities, the fire engines are taken near the river for refilling which causes further delays.
He added that the station has five running fire trucks spread across Thimphu but none of them have ladders. The only truck with a ladder facility, donated to the station a few years ago, remains defunct.
The fire division also put in proposals to purchase aerial ladder trucks twice but they were not approved. The station also has landing pads, but the official shared that in the recent case, the location was not feasible for its use.
In light of the incident, some people are calling for the need for fire exits in buildings.
“Whoever does it, whether it is the engineers or the house owners, we need emergency staircases in the buildings. This would be helpful in times of disasters like fire, people can escape to safety,” said Kinzang Tshering, a resident.
The Building Code of Bhutan 2018 states that a building intended for human occupation should have exits sufficient to permit the safe escape of occupants in case of fire or other emergencies.
The Thimphu Thromde through email said that although there are “regulations in place, as of now, it has not been made mandatory for existing buildings.” “However, it is mandatory for new commercial and institutional buildings.”
Similarly, people are also questioning whether Jamthos that are used to keep water tanks can be used to house people.
According to the Thimphu Thromde, Jamthos can be used for habitable purposes owing to a circular issued by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport in August 2021. However, it must be approved by the Thromde.
As per the circular, certain conditions need to be met for approval. They include technical requirements and standards for architectural proportions, structural safety and integrity, lighting and ventilation, room sizes and height, fire safety, etc.
The Thromde says that while verifications are carried out for new buildings, monitoring illegal constructions of attics and Jamthos remains a challenge mainly due to limited manpower.
There are almost 7,000 buildings in the capital. Only about 600 received approvals for Jamthos.
According to the RBP statistical yearbook, there were 68 house fires in the country last year of which 16 were in Thimphu.
The recent incident highlights severe gaps in fire safety infrastructure and emergency response capabilities. It serves as a stark reminder that immediate action is needed to prevent such disasters from happening again.
Karma Wangdi
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
