DHAKA, Bangladesh — At least 49 people were killed and hundreds more burned when a fire at a container depot in Bangladesh sparked a series of explosions, officials said Sunday, the latest such disaster. in a country where fires and mass casualties have become a recurring problem.
Many people are in critical condition in the hospital’s burn wards, according to local officials, who fear the death toll will rise. By afternoon, two dozen units of firefighters were still trying to contain the blaze, which began around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday at BM Container Depot in Sitakunda town, about 10 kilometers from Chattogram, Bangladesh’s main port.
After the first firefighters arrived, a huge explosion rocked the warehouse, causing the fire to spread. At least five firefighters were killed in that explosion and 14 others were injured, officials said. This was followed by more explosions, which continued into Sunday morning.
“My window glass is broken. Not just ours – we hear other people say their windows are broken too, even when 2-3 km away from the warehouse,” said Majharul Islam, 26, a shop owner who lives about a distance from the warehouse. 100 m, said the original. explosion.
Mr. Islam said he has supplied the canteen of the vast warehouse and at any given time there could be between 500 and 600 people working there.
“The explosion was on one side,” he said, “it was a small part of the entire warehouse.”
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, issued a statement expressing “severe shock” over the warehouse fire and offered condolences “to the families of those who have passed away.” Her government’s Minister for Labor and Employment announced financial assistance to affected families – about $2,200 for the victims and around $500 each to treat the injured. .
The cause of the disaster, at one of Bangladesh’s largest inland container depots, was not immediately clear. Attempts to contact executives at the company that operated the warehouse were not immediately successful.
Shahadat Hossain, a senior government official for Sitakunda, said that large quantities of hydrogen peroxide may have been stored at the warehouse, along with other goods. “We can’t say anything more right now,” he said.
Dr Mohammed Elias Chowdhury, a civilian surgeon for Chattogram, also known as Chittagong, said hundreds of people have been admitted to the Chittagong Medical University Hospital. “Many of them are very important,” he said. “Some people have 60 to 70 percent burns on their body.”
Photos taken from the hospital show injured people lying on the floor, waiting to be treated. Dr Chowdhury said all vacation days have been canceled for doctors and other staff at the hospital.
Hasan Mahmud Arafat, 25, a university student who volunteered to help at the hospital, said all the beds in the burn units were full and ambulance sirens were howling all night.
“I have seen thousands of people come to the hospital to donate blood,” he said. “I see locals coming to the hospital with hand fans – they fan the patients who are waiting for their beds or those who are being put on makeshift beds.”
The fire caused mass casualties and industrial disasters, especially at garment factories, which account for 80% of the country’s exports, have been and are a recurring problem in Bangladesh. The steady economic growth of the country of 170 million has been the region’s success story in recent years, but labor and human rights groups have long expressed concern about poor working conditions and Safety measures in the workplace.
The worst disaster happened in 2013, when an eight-storey garment factory collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. Last July, a factory fire in Narayanganj . city kill at least 51 people.
Mujib Mashal Contribution reports from New Delhi.
