Huge fire breaks out in Dhaka’s Korail slum – Yahoo

Incident Report: Fire in Korail Slum, Dhaka

Executive Summary

A major fire broke out in the Korail slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on November 25, 2025. The incident has had a devastating impact on a densely populated community of approximately 80,000 people, many of whom are climate migrants. This event critically intersects with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting profound challenges related to poverty, urban planning, inequality, and climate action.

Analysis of Impact on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

H3: SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities

The fire starkly exposes the vulnerabilities inherent in informal settlements, directly challenging the objectives of SDG 11.

• Inadequate and Unsafe Housing: The incident underscores the precarious living conditions within the slum, which lacks resilient infrastructure and basic safety measures, making it highly susceptible to disasters like fires.
• Urban Inequality: The location of the slum, adjacent to upscale high-rise buildings, illustrates the extreme inequality within Dhaka’s urban landscape. This disaster disproportionately affects the city’s most vulnerable residents.
• Disaster Risk Reduction: The event highlights an urgent need for improved disaster risk reduction strategies and urban planning that includes and protects informal communities.

H3: SDG 1 – No Poverty

This disaster represents a significant setback for efforts to achieve SDG 1 by pushing an already vulnerable population deeper into poverty.

• Loss of Assets: Residents have lost their homes, personal belongings, and potentially their sources of livelihood, erasing assets accumulated over time.
• Increased Vulnerability: The displacement and loss caused by the fire exacerbate the economic precarity of the 80,000 inhabitants, trapping them in a cycle of poverty.

H3: SDG 13 – Climate Action

The report that many residents are climate migrants directly links this urban disaster to the broader climate crisis, a central concern of SDG 13.

• Vulnerability of Climate Migrants: The fire demonstrates the compounded vulnerability of populations displaced by climate change. Having migrated to urban centers for safety or opportunity, they find themselves in hazardous living conditions susceptible to different, but equally severe, threats.
• Need for Adaptive Capacity: The incident emphasizes the necessity of building adaptive capacity not only in coastal or rural areas but also in the urban centers that receive climate migrants.

H3: SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities

The fire and its consequences are a clear manifestation of the inequalities that SDG 10 aims to address.

• Disproportionate Impact: The risk and impact of such disasters are not shared equally across society. The residents of Korail slum bear a disproportionate burden compared to those in the neighboring formal, affluent areas.
• Social and Economic Exclusion: The existence of such a large, underserved slum points to systemic issues of social and economic exclusion that prevent communities from accessing safe housing and basic services.

Incident Details and Response

Emergency Response

• A significant emergency response was initiated, with a spokesperson confirming the deployment of at least 16 fire engines to control the blaze.

Investigation

• According to fire officials, the cause of the fire was not immediately known and remains under investigation.

Analysis of SDGs in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 1: No Poverty

   • The article discusses a fire in the Korail slum, which is an informal settlement characterized by extreme poverty. The destruction of homes and belongings in such an event exacerbates the poverty of its residents.

2. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

   • The article highlights the stark contrast between the slum and the “upscale high-rise buildings” that flank it. This points to significant urban inequality, where the most vulnerable populations live in precarious conditions next to areas of wealth.

3. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

   • The central theme is a disaster within a large urban slum. This directly relates to the goal of making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The fire underscores the lack of safe housing and the vulnerability of slum dwellers to disasters.

4. SDG 13: Climate Action

   • The article explicitly states that many of the slum’s 80,000 residents are “climate migrants.” This establishes a direct link between the impacts of climate change (forcing migration) and the vulnerability of people living in urban slums.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. Target 1.5

   • “By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.” The fire is a disaster that affects a poor and vulnerable population (slum dwellers, including climate migrants), indicating a lack of resilience.

2. Target 11.1

   • “By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.” The existence of the Korail slum, and its susceptibility to a large-scale fire, demonstrates a failure to provide adequate and safe housing for its 80,000 residents.

3. Target 11.5

   • “By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected… by disasters… with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.” The fire in a densely populated slum is a disaster directly impacting a vulnerable population, making this target highly relevant.

4. Target 13.1

   • “Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.” The presence of climate migrants living in a disaster-prone slum highlights a low adaptive capacity to the consequences of climate change.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. Indicator 11.1.1 (Implied)

   • “Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing.” The article’s mention of the Korail slum, home to 80,000 people in Dhaka, directly relates to the data needed for this indicator. It quantifies the scale of informal settlements within the city.

2. Indicator 11.5.1 / 1.5.1 (Implied)

   • “Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population.” While the article does not provide casualty figures, it states that the slum is home to 80,000 people, all of whom are directly affected by the fire (a disaster). This event would be a data point for measuring the impact of disasters on vulnerable populations.

Summary Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: yahoo.com