(Chittagong) At least 15 people died and around 170 were injured in the fire at a container warehouse in Sitakunda (southeast Bangladesh), local authorities told AFP on Sunday.
Posted yesterday at 10:49 p.m.
“So far, 15 people have died. Around 170 people were injured, including at least 40 firefighters and 10 police officers. Three firefighters lost their lives,” said Abul Kalam Azad, the local police chief.
Local media put the number of injured at around 300. Requests for blood donations for the injured poured in on social media.
Elias Chowdhury, chief doctor of Chittagong, the large neighboring city, had initially reported a balance sheet of 5 dead and a hundred injured.
He said that the toll could increase because among the injured, around twenty people are in critical condition, their burns covering between 60 and 90% of their bodies.
The injured are being taken to various hospitals in the Chittagong region, and doctors on vacation have been called in urgently.
The fire broke out shortly before midnight in this warehouse called BM Container Depot and located 40 kilometers from Cjittagong, the country’s main seaport, said Jalal Ahmed, head of the fire services.
Several fire units rushed to the depot to put out the fire when a massive explosion rocked the site, injuring many people, including firefighters.
The fire was largely under control by Sunday morning, “but there are still some pockets of fire in the depot, and firefighters are trying to put them out,” Mominur Rahman, the district’s chief administrator, told AFP. from Chittagong.
He claimed that the depot contained clothing worth millions of dollars, which was to be exported to Western retailers, without specifying the amount of the products destroyed. Bangladesh’s exports to the West have risen sharply in recent years.
Some of the containers at the private depot contained chemicals, including hydrogen peroxide, said Ruhul Amin Sikder, spokesman for the Bangladesh Inland Container Association (BICA).
The facility’s director, Mujibur Rahman, said the reason for the fire was still unknown. He added that the facility employed some 600 people.