Firefighters carry the dead body of a victim from the site after a fire broke out at a container storage facility in Sitakunda, about 40 km from the key port of Chittagong on June 5, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP)
DHAKA – At least 37 people died as a container depot in Bangladesh's Chattogram district, about 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka, caught fire followed by explosions on Saturday night, a senior official said Sunday.
The fire broke out in one of the containers loaded with chemicals in the container yard located in Sitakunda on the outskirts of Chattogram.
The fire broke out in one of the containers loaded with chemicals in the container yard located in Sitakunda on the outskirts of Chattogram
The district's chief administrator Mohammad Mominur Rahman told Xinhua over mobile phone that the death toll of the depot fire has risen to 37 on Sunday afternoon after "another 23 people succumbed to their injuries."
He said at least 200 others suffered burn injuries in the devastating fire that broke out at about 8:00 pm local time (1400 GMT) Saturday at the private BM Container Depot Ltd, a Netherlands-Bangladesh joint venture company.
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Rescue workers and civilians carry an injured victim to a hospital in Chittagong, after a fire broke out at a container storage facility in Chittagong, on June 5, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP)
All the victims were shifted to hospitals, mostly suffering from mild to heavy burns, with several of them in critical condition. A fire official warned that the death toll is likely to rise.
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The district's administration chief said 16 firefighting units had been striving to put out the blaze, which was almost under control early Sunday.