Industrial fire in Bangladesh claims 49 lives, injures hundreds

Asia-Pacific, News June 6, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

A huge fire broke out at an industrial storage facility in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on June 4, after an explosion in one of the containers at the depot.

Hundreds gathered to contain the fire but it rapidly took over many shipping containers and immediately spread all across the facility. The fire and explosion have killed at least 49 people and injured more than 300 people.

According to reports, one of the containers had flammable chemicals that exploded and caused the fire to erupt rapidly. Many of the injured are in critical condition while the number of people killed is expected to rise.

The fire broke out around 21:00 local time on June 4. Firefighters, police along with many other volunteers arrived at the scene to contain the rapidly spreading fire, however, soon after the explosion was heard, a huge fireball took over several containers and spread across the facility.

Industrial fires are common in Bangladesh due to poor fire safety regulations. The intensity of the first explosion is being compared to the huge blast that hit Beirut in 2020.

The fire squad tried to extinguish the blaze but due to inefficient equipment and almost no fire extinguishing facilities, the fire went out of control in no time. Locals who were present at the scene reported that the initial blast threw some heavy containers as high as 10 meters up into the sky. Volunteers and firefighters were seen ill-equipped at the scene with some only wearing flip flops while trying to take out the bodies from the wreckage and rescue the injured from the blazing fire.

At least 5 firefighters have been killed while several are injured. Many people are still missing including some journalists and reporters who arrived at the scene in the early stages of the fire.

The initial blast was so large that it was heard from kilometers away and shattered the windows in nearby buildings. Some debris flew kilometers away and landed at different places all across the city. Mujibur Rahman, Director of B.M. Container Depot, the firm operating the facility with around 600 workers, said that the cause of the fire and explosion was still unknown.

*^{A huge fire broke out at an industrial storage facility in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on June 4, 2022. (Image Credit: Twitter)}*

Bangladesh army sent its choppers to the scene and deployed more than 250 soldiers to prevent the chemicals from flowing into the nearby sea. Mominur Rahman, the Chief administrator of the Chittagong district, said that the fire was largely under control, there were “still several pockets of fire”. He further added that “Firefighters are trying to control these pockets of fires. The fire has spread to at least seven acres of land inside the depot.”

Bangladesh relies heavily upon its textile industry which accounts for 90% of its $100 billion trade. Large clothing brands such as H&M, Walmart, and Levi’s have their production orders set up in Bangladesh. However, the industrial fire safety regulations in Bangladesh have been in question for a very long time to be extremely poor and inefficient.