10% soybean oil, chickpea feared destroyed

The fire – which gutted a Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) warehouse in Dhaka late Tuesday – may have destroyed as much as 10 per cent of the stored soybean oil and chickpeas, just 36 hours before the launch of subsidised sales of food products during Ramadan.

Though the TCB authorities could not confirm the actual amount of damage caused by the fire, they said the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence personnel had arrived at the scene quickly, and managed to tame the blaze before it could do more damage.

Speaking to The Business Post, TCB Chairman Brig Gen Md Ariful Hassan PSC said, “The fire broke out in the shade where soybean oil and chickpeas were stored. The upper stack of soybean storage was damaged the most.

“The chickpeas of the upper stack of the storage were also damaged. Chickpeas were damaged as its polythene cover melted due to the heat of the fire. The water had also damaged the commodity.”

He continued, “We are estimating that the fire damaged around 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the Soybean oil, and nearly 5 per cent to 10 per cent of the chickpeas stored at the warehouse.

We can provide a solid estimation once the evaluation is completed.

“A three-member committee has been formed to evaluate the damage, and also to find out the reason behind the fire, within the next seven days.”

Insiders say the committee is headed by Joint Secretary and Additional Director (Admin) of TCB Md Manjur Alam Prodhan.

The fire broke out at the Number 9 shade of a TCB warehouse located near Bir Uttam Mir Shawkat Sarak. Labourers worked to clear the damaged food items from the warehouse all day long.

A number of officials and staff at the warehouse said the first and third row was used for storing soybean oil, while the middle row was for chickpeas. The upper layer of the first and second row was damaged but the third row remained intact.

They suspect that the leaves on the shed rooftop somehow caught fire from a spark from a nearby electric wire, and then somehow spread throughout the shed. Several top TCB officials however declined to make any comment on the matter.

The head of TCB Dhaka Regional Office, Joint Director and also Press Relationship Officer Md Humayun Kabir said, “After the fire broke out, a large number of people from the neighbourhood came to the scene, but did not help douse the fire.

“Instead, they created obstacles to stopping the fire.”

He added, “Anyway, thanks to the fire department that they came within 10 minutes of the call and handled the situation. Otherwise the incident would have triggered a serious hurdle for TCB to provide food items at subsidised prices to the poor.

“The amount of damage is minimal. We still have enough food items at storage to meet the supply target of 1 crore people during the month of Ramadan.”

Fire department sources say they received a call around 11:54pm on Tuesday night and rushed to the scene at 12:03am. Three units of the fire department brought the blaze under control within 30 minutes of arrival.