Fire under control, 43 killed

Firefighters have brought the deadly blaze at Sitakunda’s BM Container Depot in Chattogram under control, three days after fiery explosions killed at least 43 people.

“The fire has not been put out completely, but there is no risk of further explosions,” said Lt Col Ariful Islam Himel at a briefing on the spot on Tuesday (June 7) morning.

The death toll rose to 43, including at least nine firefighters, after the remains of two people were found, fire service official Purno Chandro Mursody told Reuters.

“We believe one of them was a firefighter, while the other was a security guard,” he said.

“Some containers are still smoking. It could take days to douse the fire completely. We need to remove the containers with the utmost caution as the fire might be stoked,” he added.

Meanwhile, at least 63 victims of the fiery explosions have suffered eye injuries from the blast.

Among them, six people have severe blast injuries to their eyes, Ophthalmologist Prof Md Nurul Haque told reporters at the Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Tuesday.

He added that these patients need to be sent to Dhaka for better treatment.

Apart from these six patients, five others also sustained serious eye injuries but cannot be transported to Dhaka because they must first receive treatment for their burn injuries at the CMCH for at least seven days, the medical expert also added.

“Determining whether chemical injuries can cause long-term complications takes six to seven days on average. We can’t guarantee anything because we don’t know what chemical caused their injuries,” said Prof Md Nurul.

The fire at the BM Inland container depot broke out at around 9:30pm on Saturday (June 4) followed by explosions in a container full of chemicals.

Local residents said the force of the explosion shook the entire neighbourhood and shattered window panes in nearby homes.

While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, authorities said a container of hydrogen peroxide may have been the source.

Meanwhile, basic fire-safety measures had not been implemented, with only a handful of extinguishers in a depot storing dozens of containers full of everything from clothes to chemicals.

“We haven’t found any basic fire safety measures ... There were simply some extinguishers. Nothing else. They didn’t even follow storage guidelines for hazardous chemicals,” senior fire service official Monir Hossain told Reuters.

Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association, said in a statement on Monday that its members, including BM Container Depot, regularly handled hydrogen peroxide without incident and, as far as he knew, the company followed guidelines.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan announced a probe into the fire and promised to bring the guilty to book.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed on Tuesday said legal action will be taken against those responsible for the fire after receiving the probe reports.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police has been directed to collect all kinds of evidence from the spot, he told reporters after visiting the container depot in Sitakunda and the injured victims at CMCH.

Besides, two committees were formed to investigate the incident- one by the government and another by the fire service.

Chattogram Civil Surgeon Mohammed Elias Hossain said some of the injured were in critical condition. Of the 200 or so injured, 50 were rescue officials, police said.

Officials said troops have been deployed to try to prevent chemicals from spreading into canals and along the nearby coast.

The last major fire in Bangladesh was in July last year, when 54 people were killed when a massive fire raged through a juice-making factory in Narayanganj, southeast of the capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s deadliest fire was in 2012, when a blaze swept through the Tazreen Fashions factory in Dhaka, killing 112 workers and injuring more than 150.