More than 40 killed and hundreds injured in huge fire at southern Bangladesh container depot

The explosions at the container depot shattered the windows of nearby buildings and were felt as far as four kilometres away

At least 49 people have been killed and more than 100 injured after a huge fire tore through a container depot in southern Bangladesh, officials have said.

The fire at the BM Inland Container Depot, a storage facility in Sitakunda, broke out around midnight on Saturday following explosions in a container full of chemicals.

At least nine firefighters were among the dead, according to Brig Gen Main Uddin, director general of the Bangladesh fire service and civil defence.

More than 10 others were being treated for burns, he added.

Multiple rounds of explosions occurred after the initial blast as the fire continued to spread, shattering the windows of nearby buildings, and were felt as far as four kilometres away, officials said.

The depot is located near country’s main Chittagong Seaport, 134 miles southeast of the capital, Dhaka.

Many of those who have been injured are reported to be in critical condition with burns covering 60% to 90% of their bodies.

Chittagong civil surgeon Mohammed Elias Hossain has called on all doctors in the district to help tackle the situation and urged for emergency blood donations.

Many of the casualties happened at Chattogram Medical College Hospital, while the rest of the bodies were recovered from the site of the fire.

The death toll reached 49 by Sunday evening, according to Ekattor TV station, and the area’s civil surgeon said the number could still rise as the fire raged for a second night.

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It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze. But fire service officials believe it may have originated from a container of hydrogen peroxide and rapidly spread to other containers.

Emergency crews were still working tirelessly to put out the blaze on Sunday morning, with military clinics helping to treat the injured.

Fires are common in Bangladesh. Last year, a fire at a food and beverage factory outside Dhaka killed at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door.

In 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people.

The country’s worst industrial disaster occurred in 2013, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.