BY: NewsPeddlers
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| Fire destroyed over $110 million worth of goods in Bangladesh |
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire that broke out at a container depot in Sitakunda, Bangladesh, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the key port of Chittagong, June 5, 2022.
A massive fire swept through an inland container depot near a port city in southeastern Bangladesh, killing at least 49 people and injured hundreds more, officials said Sunday.
Firefighters still struggled to get the blaze under control 17 hours after the fire began.
The fire at the BM Inland Container Depot — a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture — broke out around midnight Saturday following explosions in a container full of chemicals. The depot is near Chittagong.
“The death toll so far has risen to 49,” Elias Chowdhury, Chittagong’s chief doctor, told VOA. He added that more than 300 people have been injured in the blaze and subsequent explosions.
Chowdhury also expressed concern that the death toll might increase as some of the injured are in critical condition.
“At least 20 more people are in critical condition with burns covering 60-90% of their bodies,” he said.
Eight firefighters are among those killed, Brigadier General Dr. Main Uddin, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defense, told VOA, while at least 21 firefighters, who had been at the scene attempting to douse the blaze, have been injured and treated for burn injuries.
FSCD Director Mohammad Rezaul Karim told VOA this is the highest number of firefighter deaths in a single incident in Bangladesh’s history.
“Earlier, the highest number of members we had lost from our FSCD family in a single fire incident was three. It happened at Kulaura in 2008. This is a tragic day for us,” Karim said.
Karim who was made the head of a seven-member team that is investigating the fire and the extent of damages, said the cause of the blaze has not been determined yet but that an initial fire triggered multiple explosions, possibly because of the chemicals stored in the depot.
SOURCE: AFP/VOA