Blast ‘exposes lack of safety measures’
DOZENS MISSING IN DEADLY BANGLADESH FIRE AT DEPOT
FIREFIGHTERS in Bangladesh brought a blaze at a container depot under control on Tuesday (7), three days after fiery explosions killed at least 43 people at a facility that a senior fire service official suspected had not followed safety guidelines.
The fire started late last Saturday (4) at a depot in Sitakunda, which stores around 4,000 containers, many filled with garments destined for Western retailers. The facility is about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the major southern port of Chittagong.
The blaze caused containers holding chemicals to explode, engulfing firefighters, volunteers and journalists in an inferno, hurtling people and debris through the air, and turning the night sky a blazing orange.
Buildings located kilometres away rattled with the force of the blast.
Authorities have not determined the cause of the disaster but suspect a container of hydrogen peroxide was the source.
“The fire has not been put out completely but there is no risk of further explosion as our team has sorted out the chemical containers .. one by one,” senior fire service official Monir Hossain said.
He added that basic fire-safety measures had not been implemented with only a handful of extinguishers in a depot that was storing dozens of containers full of everything from clothes to chemicals.
“We haven’t found any basic fire safety measures ... There were simply some extinguishers. Nothing else. They didn’t even follow storage guidelines for hazardous chemicals,” Hossain said.
The director of the facility, the BM Container Depot, did not answer calls seeking comment.
Shipping group Maersk said that it would cooperate with the authorities in case its support was needed in the investigation.
“We are in touch with our customers to keep them informed on the status of their cargo as and when we have confirmed information coming through,” Maersk said.
Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association, said on Monday (6) its members, including BM Container Depot, regularly handled hydrogen peroxide without incident and as far as he was aware, the company had followed guidelines.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said an investigation had been launched and those responsible would face justice.
Dozens of missing workers from the container depot were still unaccounted for, while many of the dead were burned beyond recognition. Nine victims were firefighters.
Fire service chief Brigadier General Mian Uddin said, “we could not control the fire because of the existence of this chemical (hydrogen peroxide).”
Mohammad Ali, 60, who runs a nearby grocery store, said the blast was deafening.
“A cylinder flew around half a kilometre from the fire spot to our small pond when the explosion occurred,” he said.
“The explosion sent fireballs into the sky. Fireballs were falling like rain. We were so afraid we immediately left our home to find refuge... We thought the fire would spread to our locality as it is very densely populated.”
Scores of people gathered to give DNA samples at a Bangladesh hospital on Monday (6) as authorities struggled to identify the dead.
Munni Akhter, 25, queued for hours to give a DNA sample at a makeshift stand outside the Chittagong Medical College. When her turn finally came she struggled to hold back tears as doctors took her blood.
Her lorry driver brother Mohammad Akhter was giving a “running commentary” on the fire on Facebook Live, she said, holding up a phone showing his broadcast.
“Then after the blast, it was all dark,” she said. “Since then, we couldn’t find him.”
Abdul Hannan, 60, carried a portrait of his missing son, a worker at the depot. “My son called his wife and told her about the fire,” he said. “She heard the explosion over the phone. Since then, we couldn’t contact him anymore. I have lost my child, oh God!”
Authorities revised the death toll down from 49 to 41, but it was expected to rise again with at least 14 critically injured victims flown to Dhaka in military helicopters for treatment.
Officials said at least nine firefighters were killed in the inferno – the most Bangladesh has ever lost in a single incident in the country. Two more firefighters are among several people still missing, officials said.
“Never in the history of the fire department have so many firefighters died,” said Purnachandra Mutsuddi, who led the fire-fighting effort at the 26-acre facility last Saturday (4) night.
“How do you feel when you recover your brothers? No event is as painful as this.”
The depot operator did not inform the firefighters about the chemicals, specifically hydrogen peroxide, stored on site, Mutsuddi said.
“If they did, the casualties would have been much less,” he said.
Mutsuddi, an assistant director of the Chittagong fire station, said the firefighters unwittingly doused the hydrogen peroxide with water, setting off an explosive reaction.
The BM Container Depot in
Sitakunda, an industrial town 40 km (25 miles) from Chittagong Port, is a joint venture between Bangladeshi and Dutch businessmen with around 600 employees and began operations in 2012.
Police have yet to lay charges over the fire. Some containers were still smouldering on Monday, more than 40 hours after the explosion, preventing rescuers from checking the area around them for victims.
“The fire is under control,” said fire department inspector Harunur Rashid. “But the chemicals are the main problems.”
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan visited the site and vowed those responsible would be brought to justice, telling reporters: “Whoever has committed the crime will face action according to the law.”
Around 90 per cent of Bangladesh’s roughly $100 billion (£80bn) in trade – including clothes for H&M, Walmart and others – passes through the Chittagong port at the top of the Bay of Bengal.
Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said about $110 million worth of garments were destroyed in the fire. “It is a huge loss for the industry,” he said.
Troops were deployed to try to prevent chemicals spreading into canals and along the nearby coast, officials said.