Over 27,000 fires reported nationwide in 2025, leaving 85 dead

Bangladesh recorded 27,059 fire incidents nationwide in 2025—an average of 75 fires a day—leaving at least 85 people dead and 267 injured, according to Fire Service and Civil Defence.

The agency’s media division disclosed the figures on Tuesday (February 10), noting that 17 firefighters were injured and three were killed while battling blazes during the year.

Electrical faults were identified as the leading cause of fires, accounting for 9,392 incidents, or 34.71 percent of the total. Other major causes included discarded cigarette butts (4,269 incidents), cooking stoves (2,909), gas cylinder leaks (920) and gas supply line leaks (562). Smaller numbers were linked to gas cylinder explosions, chemical accidents, children playing with fire, hot ash, mosquito coils and fireworks.

Fire Service estimates that the blazes caused property losses worth about Tk 569.97 crore, while timely firefighting operations saved assets valued at around Tk 3,263.62 crore.

Residential buildings were the most affected, with 8,705 fires—32.17 percent of the total—reported in homes. Significant numbers of fires were also recorded in haystacks (3,922), shops (1,800), markets (1,067), shopping malls (617), garment factories (665), non-garment industrial units (615) and gas cylinder shops (483). Fires were also reported in power substations, high-rise buildings, restaurants and hotels, government offices, hospitals, educational institutions, slums and places of worship.

In the transport sector, fires were reported in 153 buses, 216 other vehicles, 10 trains, four launches and two ships. One training aircraft crash also resulted in a fire.

Month-wise data show the highest number of fires occurred between December and April, with March recording the peak at 3,522 incidents. During these months, an average of 123 fires occurred daily. November and May also saw more than 2,200 incidents each.

Men accounted for a higher share of casualties. Of the 267 injured, 197 were men and 70 women. Among the 85 fatalities, 46 were men and 39 women. The highest numbers of casualties were recorded in residential buildings, chemical accidents and aircraft-related fire incidents.

As part of fire safety efforts, Fire Service and Civil Defence inspected 10,533 buildings in 2025. Of these, 3,316 were found risky, 622 highly risky and 6,595 satisfactory in terms of fire safety standards.

To strengthen enforcement, the agency conducted 192 mobile court drives, fining 179 institutions a total of Tk 1.94 crore and filing cases against eight establishments.

Fire Service also carried out extensive awareness and training programmes during the year, including 15,865 drills, 14,987 public outreach activities and 4,345 training sessions, providing basic fire safety training to more than 173,800 people. In addition, over 156,000 garment workers received specialised fire safety training, while new urban community volunteers were trained and existing volunteers received refresher courses.