UNB, Barguna
At least 37 people were charred to death and 72 others injured in a massive fire that broke out on a launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka to Barguna in the early hours of Friday.
The blaze, in fact, began on Avijan-10 in the middle of the Sugandha river off the coast of Jhalokati district’s Sadar upazila around 3am. Within five to 10 minutes, the flames engulfed the entire vessel.
“We were alerted around 3.30am,” Fazlul Haque of Fire Service and Civil Defence in Barishal, told UNB. However, due to dense fog in the area, the first firefighting vessels took some time to reach the ill-fated launch.
“So far, 37 bodies have been recovered from the ill-fated launch,” said Khalilur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge of Jhalokathi Sadar police station.
Meanwhile, Deputy Assistant Director (media cell) of Fire Service and Civil Defense HQ, Md Shahjahan Sikder confirmed of 72 injured passengers being rescued.
Of them, 48 seriously injured passengers were admitted to the Barishal government hospital. The ill-fated vessel has also been brought to the shore.
“In fact, Jhalokathi’s local firefighters initially tried to douse the flames and later the Barishal fire service joined them,” said Kamal Uddin, Deputy Director (Barishal division) of Fire Service and Civil Defence.
Eventually some 15 fire tenders took nearly two hours to bring the blaze under control, at 5.20am,” said fire officials.
As it was Thursday, Kamal said, the launch was carrying more than 800 passengers. “Most of them jumped off the vessel and swam to the shore as the fire broke out.”
Later in the day, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority formed a six-member committee to investigate the launch fire. Md Saiful Islam, additional director of port and transportation department, will head it.
