The devastating fire at TupTup Resort and Restaurant in Inani Cox’s Bazar, which claimed 10 lives, has exposed serious gaps in the enforcement of fire safety regulations and raised a fundamental question: If authorities had already identified the resort as risky, why was it allowed to continue operating?
The tragedy became even more disturbing after it emerged that the resort did not have a fire safety clearance. According to the Fire Service and Civil Defence, the facility had been inspected in June and identified as risky. A warning notice was subsequently issued to the authorities concerned. Yet, the resort continued its operations.
The incident therefore cannot be viewed simply as an unfortunate fire accident. It raises questions about whether safety inspections are being followed by effective enforcement and whether warnings issued by regulatory agencies have any practical consequence.
The three-storey wooden resort, located near Patuartek beach along the Marine Drive, caught fire at around 7:30am on Saturday (17 October). The flames spread rapidly through the structure, leaving occupants with little time to escape.
Firefighters later recovered 10 bodies from the building. Among the dead were six members of the same family, including a woman and a five-year-old child. One family member, Md Ashikul Islam, survived after jumping from the second floor to escape the flames. His wife and five other family members, however, died in the fire.
The deaths highlight the deadly consequences of operating a tourist facility without adequate fire safety measures, particularly when the structure itself is made largely of wood.
Warning Is Not Enough
The most important issue arising from the tragedy is not simply whether the authorities knew that the resort was dangerous. They apparently did. If an inspection had already found serious safety risks, the next step should have been clear: ensure compliance, suspend operations where necessary, or take legal and administrative action against the operator.
A warning notice by itself cannot protect tourists. The purpose of a regulatory inspection is to identify hazards before they cause deaths. Once serious risks are identified, authorities have a responsibility to ensure that those risks are removed. Otherwise, inspections become little more than paperwork. The TupTup tragedy raises the possibility of a dangerous gap between identifying a risk and acting on it.
Who Is Responsible For Enforcement?
The resort owner and management must obviously bear responsibility for failing to ensure the safety of their guests. But the question of administrative accountability cannot be ignored.
Tourist facilities operate within a regulatory framework involving multiple authorities. Fire safety, building standards, environmental requirements, business licences and other permissions are supposed to ensure that establishments are safe for public use.
When an establishment is operating without a required safety clearance, authorities must explain how it continued to receive customers. More importantly, if a government agency had already identified the facility as risky, it should explain what action was taken after the warning was issued.
Was The Resort Ordered To Stop Operations?
Was the warning followed up with another inspection?
Were the deficiencies communicated to other relevant authorities?
If the establishment continued operating despite the identified risks, who was responsible for ensuring compliance?
These are not merely bureaucratic questions. They go directly to the issue of accountability for the deaths.
Cox’s Bazar is one of Bangladesh's most important tourism destinations, attracting millions of visitors every year. Resorts, hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities have expanded rapidly, particularly along the Marine Drive and coastal areas.
But rapid tourism development without equally strong safety enforcement creates a serious public risk.
Wooden structures, inadequate emergency exits, limited access for firefighting vehicles, electrical hazards and a lack of evacuation arrangements can turn a relatively small fire into a mass-casualty disaster.
Tourists generally have no way of knowing whether a resort has the necessary safety clearances. They assume that a facility open to the public has met the minimum requirements set by the authorities. That makes regulatory enforcement even more important.
Lessons Must Be Acted Upon
The TupTup fire should prompt an immediate safety audit of resorts, hotels and restaurants in Cox’s Bazar and other major tourist destinations. Facilities without mandatory fire safety clearance should not be allowed to operate until they meet the required standards. Those already identified as risky should receive priority attention, with clear deadlines for compliance and strict action in cases of non-compliance.
The government also needs to establish a system in which warnings issued by regulatory agencies are tracked until the identified problems are resolved. An inspection report should not end with a notice. There must be follow-up, enforcement and accountability.
The deaths of 10 people at TupTup Resort, including six members of one family and a five-year-old child, should not become another statistic in Bangladesh's long list of preventable disasters. The central question is therefore simple but difficult to avoid: If authorities knew the resort was risky, why was it still operating?
Finding a clear answer—and fixing the system that allowed such a facility to remain open—may be the most important step in preventing another tragedy.
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The writer is a Senior Sub-Editor at Daily Sun. He can be reached at hossainshahadat950@gmail.com