The results of the deadly explosion that occurred in Sitakunda, Bangladesh, so far reports 49 dead, including nine firefighters, and more than 300 injured. Two days after the tragedy, Monday June 6, the country’s authorities accuse the operator of a container depot of not having informed the firefighters of the presence of chemicals when they arrived at this site on Saturday evening. They were responding to a fire in a private warehouse housing some 4,000 containers, about 40 kilometers from the major port of Chittagong, when a gigantic explosion sounded.
“Never in the history of the fire department have so many firefighters been killed”Purnachandra Mutsuddi, deputy director of the Chittagong fire station, who was leading firefighting operations, told AFP.
The 10.5 hectare site “had no fire safety plan”he added, regretting that the authorities of the deposit did not “not informed of the presence of chemicals”including hydrogen peroxide. “If they had done so, the number of victims would have been much lower.” “There are rules for storing hydrogen peroxidehe specified, if we had known, we would never have used water. We would never have entered the depot with our vehicle”. Unaware of the presence of hydrogen peroxide on the site, his teams hastened to fight the flames with water, which undoubtedly caused a fatal chemical reaction, he explained.
The search for other victims was hampered on Monday by the fire which was not yet completely extinguished. “About 30 to 40 containers are still burning”, said a fire department inspector, Harunur Rashid. “The fire is under controlhe specified, but the chemicals are the main problems”.
The BM Container Depot is a joint venture established in 2012 by Bangladeshi and Dutch businessmen, employing around 600 people. According to its website, the president is Bert Pronk, a Dutchman whom AFP could not immediately contact.