The tragic fire and loss of life at Tazreen Fashions in November 2012 was a wakeup call for the government of Bangladesh and various stakeholders to focus attention on fire safety issues. Since that date, and the Rana Plaza disaster, which followed soon after, considerable progress has been made to address safety in Bangladesh with much emphasis placed on what in all reality, was and still remains the number one threat to life: fire. The International Labour Organization’s ‘Improving Fire and General Building Safety in Bangladesh’ project funded by the US Department of Labor has made a major contribution in this regard. Through its efforts, significant headway has been made in building the capacity of the Fire Service and Civil Defence department. The fire service is now well on its way to realizing its goal of modernization and having the capacity to provide the services society requires.