Staff Reporter :
At least nine rice warehouses, stocks of three rice mills and four flour mills were burned to ashes at Chaktai wholesale market in the port city Chittagong early Sunday.
According local fire service and civil defence, a total of its 12 fire fighting units brought the devastating fire under control after seven hours of frantic efforts around 11:30am.
Meanwhile, a three-member committee has been formed to find out the reasons behind the fire and assess the damage caused by it, Deputy Director Chittagong Fire Service Mohammads Jasim Uddin told the media.
The fire was originated from a shop of the wholesale market and started engulfing one shop after another and also other establishments within moment, fire service sources said.
“We are ruined as the fire burned to ashes our cash money worth Tk 60 lakh, 20,000 sacks of rice, goods of seven rice and flour mills, and other valuables. Our all business establishments were also burned to ashes,” Omar Azam, General Secretary of Chittagong Rice Traders Association, told journalists yesterday morning.
He said, “We do not know how we will be able to stand. We can only see a dark future ahead. How we will survive.” Around 20,000 sacks of rice were burned to ashes. Of them, Satota Store had 500 sacks of rice, Shahnu Store 800 sacks of rice, Modina Rice Mill 2000 sacks of rice, New Azmeri Rice Mill 4000 sacks of rice, Mohammadia Trading 2000 sacks of rice, Harun Brothers 3000 sacks of rice and Zilani Rice Mills 4000 sacks of rice.
As Friday and Saturday are weekend days, the traders could not deposit their cash money to the banks. They had kept the cash money under lock and key at their respective iron lockers.
New Azmeri Rice Mill had kept Tk 15.70 lakh, Noor Store Tk 2.37 lakh, Haji B Zaman Traders Tk 45 thousand, Mohammadia Trading Tk 3.65 lakh, Harun Brothers Tk 3.50 lakh and Arafat Traders Tk 4.50 lakh.
Talking to the journalists Osman Goni, owner of Harun Brothers, said the wholesale market remained closed on Friday.
“We have collected our dues from the retailers of different hats and bazaars of all upazilas on Saturday to deposit those to the bank on Sunday. All cash money and important papers had been kept under lock and key at our iron lockers. The fire took away everything. As the fire also gutted our important papers into ashes, we will have to face serious difficulties. Actually, we are ruined now,” he said.
