Rohingya camp blaze: Bangladesh searches for cause of fire

With at least 15 people dead and thousands without shelter following a fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, urgent international aid is needed.

Officials in Bangladesh on Tuesday are investigating the cause of a deadly fire that tore through a Rohingya refugee camp in the southeastern town of Cox's Bazar.

The extent of casualties and damages caused by Monday's fire at the Balukhali camp may not be fully determined for some time. The United Nations, however, reported Tuesday that it confirmed 15 people, including at least three children, were killed in the fire and over 400 remain missing.

How bad was the fire at the refugee camp?

"What we have seen in this fire is something we have never seen before in these camps. It is massive. It is devastating," Johannes van der Klaauw, the UN Refugee Agency's representative in Bangladesh, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Dhaka. He added that the UN had received reports of as many as 550 people missing and 45,000 displaced.

Save the Children's Country Director in Bangladesh Onno van Manen told DW that at least 10,000 households were left without shelter.

"In the coming days, the area needs to be cleared," he said. "New shelters need to be built, and we need urgent support for that."

In a situation report released on Tuesday, the UN's World Food Program said up to 87,855 people were affected by the blaze and that many people had taken shelter in other nearby camps, learning centers for children and temporary transit sites.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement that more than 1,000 staff and volunteers worked through the night with firefighters, camp residents and other agencies to rescue people and douse the fire.

"We are providing relief through food and water, and erecting emergency shelters for people who have lost their