At minimum 49 persons died in a big fireplace in a container depot in japanese Bangladesh, according to preliminary facts from the authorities. In addition, much more than 200 individuals endured burn accidents in the hearth seemingly induced by an explosion at a site around the port metropolis of Chittagong, mentioned the district’s well being main, Elious Chowdhury, on Sunday afternoon.

It was feared that an undisclosed variety of individuals could however be at the web site, trapped by the flames.

In accordance to a fireplace office spokesman, the hearth broke out late on Saturday night in the depot of BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladesh joint undertaking, for an mysterious reason and experienced not been entirely extinguished by Sunday. Explosions in some containers produced extinguishing the fire difficult, mentioned Anisur Rahman, a spokesman for the hearth division. Firefighters located chemical substances these kinds of as hydrogen peroxide in some containers. They could have exploded, they claimed.

Nine firefighters had been amongst the useless, Main of Hearth and Civil Defense Section Primary Uddin said. In no way ahead of have so lots of firefighters died in a one fireplace. In accordance to him, a special workforce of firefighters was flown in from the capital Dhaka, about 300 kilometers absent, to help the regional fire brigade. 250 armed service staff also aided set out the fireplace and also experimented with to reduce chemicals from spilling into a close by river.

Based on the supply, there ended up different stories on the preliminary number of lifeless and hurt. In addition, authorities expected the range of victims to keep on to increase: it was feared that folks could be trapped by the hearth in sites on the web-site that the fireplace brigade was initially unable to get to. The depot is 20 kilometers from Chittagong – the country’s greatest port – and housed more than 4,000 containers, as well as buildings and sheds.

Fires and industrial disasters with fatalities and accidents are extra frequent in the South Asian country. In 2021, practically 40 persons died when a hearth broke out on a passenger ferry in December. A fire at a food manufacturing unit in Dhaka in July of the identical yr killed 52 people. The collapse of the “Rana Plaza” building with textile factories and shops in a suburb of Dhaka in April 2013 also activated international dismay – at that time additional than 1,100 folks died. (dpa)