At least 33 people, including firefighters, were killed and over 150 people were injured in an explosion as a fire broke out in a privately-run inland container depot at Sitakunda in Bangladesh’s southeast district of Chattogram at the night following Saturday.
Officials said that the victims in the fire at BM Container Depot included policemen and fire service personnel and the victims were rushed to different hospitals in Sitakunda and Chattogram city.
Mohammad Alauddin, an assistant sub-inspector at Chattogram Medical College Hospital police outpost, said that they had so far 33 bodies from the incident at the hospital.
The victims include five firefighters, he said.
The CMCH deputy director Aung Swi Prue Marma said that his hospital received over 120 patients.
Chattogram’s civil surgeon Elias Chowdhury said at least 170 people were injured from the incident. Three of them were transferred to Combined Medical College Hospital in Chattogram with critical burn injuries.
Many of the injured had their hand or leg severed, he said.
One of the deceased, Muminul Hoque, 24, son of Faridul Alam of Chanua under Banshkhai upazila in Chattogram, was a computer operator of the BM Container Depot while another victim is Md Mohiuddin, 22, son of Mahmudur Rahman, of Napora of Banshkhali.
Identities of the remaining victims could not be known until 5:00am on Sunday.
Injured cops who are now undergoing treatment at CMCH are Shahidul, 50, Shohag, 24, Imrul, 28, Aung San Suchi, 24, Shohag, 22, of Industrial Police and Md Belal, Md Mizan, 22, Md Tuhin, Md Motahar of Sitakunda police station, assistant sub-inspector Mohammad Alauddin Talukder of CMCH police outpost said.
At least 11 fire fighters remained missing after the incident, said an official of fire service control room.
CMCH officials said that many of the injured ones were undergoing treatment at the hospital in critical condition.
They said that they had to send a number patients who needed intensive care unit support to other hospitals after filling up all the ICU beds with critically injured patients.
The fire broke out at about 9:30pm in some containers in the depot, said officials.
Chattogram fire service and civil defense control room officials said that 25 firefighting units rushed to the spot and were working to douse the fire.
The fire could not be brought under control untl 6:30 am on Sunday.
Md Anisur Rahman, deputy director of Chattogram fire service and civil defense, told New Age that they were working to douse the fire but the cause of the fire could not be known immediately.
Witnesses said that the fire spread to the adjacent containers within a few minutes of beginning the fire and local people gathered there to assist the fire-fighters and the police to douse the fire.
At about 10:15pm, a container exploded with a big bang and scores of people, including the policemen and fire service officials, working there became injured, said Mohammad Shoaib who witnessed the fire and the explosion.
Officials said that the explosion was heard within a radius of about 4 kilometres from the spot and glasses of many nearby houses broke down due the huge sound.
A series of small explosions could be heard later and, since then, the fire went out of control, officials and witnesses said.
The area became heavy due to the cry of the victims and the police, fire service personnel and the vehicles that had been passing by the area began to rush the victims to different private and public hospitals in Sitakundu and Chattogram city.
CMCH received most of the victims.
The Chattogram district civil surgeon Dr Ilias Chowdhury, talking to reporters at the CMCH at about 12:45am on Sunday, urged the doctors and nurses in Chattogram city to rush to CMCH for providing treatment and care to the injured ones as the hospital’s burn unit, orthopaedic unit and emergency department had filled up with the injured victims.
He urged the volunteers to rush to the hospital to provide blood for the patients and government ambulances and private ambulance service providers to rush to the fire spot to bring the injured victims to hospitals.
The doctors and nurses had to give treatment to the patients keeping on temporary beds on floors of the departments at CMCH.
Responding to the call of the civil surgeon, a good number of doctors, nurses and volunteers rushed to CMCH.
Red Crescent Society, Gauchhia Committee Bangladesh, Sandhani and CMCH students rushed to CMCH to work as volunteers and to provide blood.
A number of the patients received by the CMCH and the Park View Hospital had lost their hands and legs in the explosion.
BM Container Depot director Mujibur Rahman told New Age that they were yet to ascertain the cause of the fire. ‘However, we suspected that the fire originated from the container.’
‘We are arranging treatment for the injured ones and we will bear the full cost of treatment of the victims. Those who have suffered casualties in the accident will be given maximum compensation. Besides, the families of all the victims will be taken care of,’ he said.
BM Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladeshi joint venture, was set up as an inland container depot which is operating from May 2011, one of 19 such ICDs in Chattogram.
The chairman of the depot is Dutch businessman Bert Pronk, who has other investments too in
