News Desk :
At least 11 people have been killed and 155 people injured in a massive fire that ripped through Balukhali Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar on Monday.
Some 40,000 shanties in the camp were burned to ashes, said Md Mohsin, secretary of Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
He revealed the information in a press briefing at the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC) office on Tuesday afternoon.
The secretary said two major hospitals of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Turkish government were also gutted in the incident.
“We will provide full support to the victims. A seven-member committee, headed by RRRC commissioner, has been formed to investigate the incident,” he added.
The fire broke out at Balukhali Rohingya camp 8 and camp 9 in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya around 4 pm on Monday.
After trying for almost six hours, seven units of the Fire Service, along with the army, police, Armed Police Battalion (APBn) members, Red Crescent team and local villagers, brought the fire under control around 10pm, said Shamsud Douza, additional commissioner for Relief and Refugee Repatriation.
Local UP Chairman Gafur Uddin said: “Thousands of Rohingyas have taken refuge in Balukhali Qasim Mia High School in the wake of the fire. Many relatives of these Rohingyas who have taken refuge are missing.”
“At least 10,000 to 15,000 Rohingya families have been affected by the fire,” said Ukhiya Upazila Nirbahi Officer Ahmad Nizam Uddin.
Ukhiya’s Balukhali Commander of APBn 8 and Superintendent of Police Md Shihab Kaishar said: “The barracks of APBn 4 were partially burnt in the fire.
However, weapons and furniture were safely removed. Apart from Rohingya huts, several NGO offices, schools, and madrasas were also gutted in the blaze.” Ukhiya Fire Service Station Officer Md Emdadul Haque said: “It is difficult to say how much damage was caused by the fire. It should be a lot as more than 1.5-2km of area has been burned down.”
Abdul Hamid, a Rohingya leader at the camp, said the fire burned thousands of shanties, including about 500 shanties under his supervision.
The fire also left Balukhali Balibazar, the biggest local market at the Rohingya camp, in ashes. Products worth at least Tk50 crore were gutted in the fire, the Rohingya leader added.
Locals claimed the fire started from a shack inside camp 8.
However, Ukhiya police station Officer in-Charge (OC) Gazi Salauddin said no credible sources had confirmed how the fire started.
He said Rohingyas at the scene are giving different accounts of the fire and blaming each other.
“We will learn about the real reason after investigation,” the police official said.
However, the UNHCR in a statement issued this evening said that based on provisional reports, 15 refugees are confirmed to have lost their lives in the fire as of this morning.
More than 560 have been injured and an estimated 400 people are still missing, said the statement published in the UNHCR’s official website.
At least 10,000 shelters are estimated to have been destroyed or damaged, the statement reads.
Some 45,000 Rohingya refugees lost their shelters and belongings in the devastating blaze, added the statement.
The fire started around 4:00pm yesterday and firefighters almost doused it an hour later. But another wave of fire broke out shortly after 11:00pm and was still burning down shanties at the densely populated camp as of 12:30am, locals said.
The fire reported around 4:00pm was the third in Balukhali camp in the last four days, locals said.
Azizul Islam, Deputy Director of Chittagong fire service told the New Nation that they have enough instruments to douse the fire. But that area is a hilly road and the road is up and down and narrow.
So their vehicle have face problem when they moved with narrow road. In some cases they have had to take water lines over hills, he added.
This official also said that the surrounding road the scene was not adequate for the extinguishing fire. It was a crowded environment.
On the other hand, there were not enough water facilities. That is why their members later find a nearby pond and take water from there to put out the fire, he added.
Asked for mass spreading the fire, he said that they made their house adjacent to a house with one. And these are made with bamboo and polythene which are highly combustible material. So the fire spread quickly.
The probe committee has been set up to find out why or how the fire started. We will be able to talk about the reason later after getting the report, the official said.
