Industrial disaster in Bangladesh. At least 49 people were killed and more than 300 injured in a massive chemical explosion, triggered by a fire, at a container depot in Sitakunda, officials reported on Sunday (June 5th).
The fire broke out on Saturday around 9:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. Paris time) in a private warehouse housing some 4,000 containers, in this city located about 40 kilometers from the major port of Chittagong, in the south-east of the country. Hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene to extinguish it but, an hour after the outbreak of the disaster, several containers of chemical products exploded, said the fire services.
“More than 300 people are injured”, Elias Chowdhury, the region’s main health official, told AFP. According to him, several people are still missing, including journalists who covered the fire live. “The death toll will increase as the rescue operations are not yet complete”he warned.
At least seven firefighters died and four are missing, said Reazul Karim, a fire department official. The gigantic explosion shook buildings several kilometers away, witnesses said. “A cylinder flew about half a kilometer from the scene of the fire to land in our small pond”said Mohgammad Ali, a 60-year-old grocer. “The explosion sent balls of fire into the sky. Balls of fire that fell like rain. We were so scared that we immediately fled”he added.
Mominur Rahman, the chief administrator of the Chittagong district, announced the opening of an investigation. He said the depot also contained clothes worth millions of dollars that were to be exported to Western countries. Fires are frequent in Bangladesh, where safety standards are poorly respected. In July 2021, 54 people died in a fire at a gigantic food processing plant outside the capital, Dhaka.