The fire that broke out at the MV Obhijan-10 leaving scores of people dead, many injured and missing on the Sugandha River in Jhalakathi is suspected to have originated from its engine room, the head of a shipping ministry probe committee said on Sunday after preliminary findings.
“We are investigating the Jhalakathi launch fire incident closely and we have visited the launch several times. Primarily, we suspect that the fire erupted from the engine room and then spread across it for other reasons,” said Tofayel Hossain, joint secretary of the ministry.
Tofayel was talking to reporters after interviewing several eyewitnesses of the tragedy at Barguna Circuit House.
“The probe is still going on so we can’t provide any concrete information now. But we are trying our best to unearth the reason,” he said.
“So far, we failed to talk to any staff of the launch,” he added.
Earlier on the day, a case was filed with Barguna Chief Judicial Magistrate Court against the owner of the launch Hamjalal Sheikh and 24 others in connection with the fire incident.
Advocate Nazmul Islam Nasir, chairman of Baliatoli union parisahd in Barguna, filed the case.
Barguna Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Mahbub Alam accepted the case and asked the police station concerned to take the complaint as a ‘first information report’, said administrative official of the court Akhter Hossain.
Meanwhile, the search drive in the Sugandha River was going on for the third consecutive day on Sunday for tracing those who went missing following the massive fire on Friday.
Besides, the control room, set up by the local administration, listed the names of 25 missing people with information given by their relatives and family members.
The blaze broke out at 3:00am on Friday on the Barguna-bound launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka and it engulfed the entire vessel within 10 minutes.
The death toll from the fire incident climbed to 41 on Saturday night. Besides, over 70 people suffered injuries and many of them are undergoing treatment at different hospitals.
