Dozens die in Nepal fire incidents every year, but local governments are ill-equipped to control them

On March 2, 2021, a fire gutted 58 houses in Meringden rural municipality in the Taplejung district of northeastern Nepal. The fire that started due to a short circuit at the house of Bhola Poudel at 9 am spread all over the neighbourhood. Even though the district’s only fire engine was sent to the scene from its headquarters Phungling, by the time it arrived, the fire had done significant damage.

“It took the fire engine an hour to arrive. By then, the damage had been done,” says Ganesh Limbu, the chair of the rural municipality. “What could one fire engine do anyway?”