bdnews24.com :
Shrouded by residual smoke and a strong burning smell, the deck of MV Abhijan-10 is littered with remnants of clothes, bags and shoes.
As the charred vessel floats by the banks of the Sugandha river, a woman desperately rummages through the debris in search of her luggage.
Inside it is her ID card, some clothes and Tk 65,000 in cash, she says. Awoken to the sight of a hellish blaze in the dead of the night, she was preoccupied with the safety of her son as she leapt off the vessel.
Recounting the horror as the flames crept closer, she said, “I was asleep [when the fire broke out]. There was a loud noise. My 13-year-old was lying next to me and I woke him up.”
“He is a tall boy but I managed to drag him out of there.”
Panic permeated the air as passengers all around her jumped into the river.
With their lives at stake, jumping overboard seemed to be the most obvious recourse for the woman and her son. But there was a problem. “My boy doesn’t know how to swim. So I couldn’t jump. My son wouldn’t survive so what would be the point of my survival?”
Crowds gather to look at the charred launch, MV Abhijan-10, floating near the banks of the Sugandha river in the southern district of Jhalakathi.
Any hope of escaping the burning vessel soon began to fade for the Barguna native. Certain that this would be the end, a sense of dread gripped her as she prepared to say goodbye to her son.
“We were saying our prayers as I held my baby in my arms. We thought we’d never see each other again. My son then gave me a kiss and said, ‘Mother, I will not survive without you.'”
In the end, the woman and her son have lived to tell the tale of a terrifying winter’s night on the Sugandha river.
“As the current dragged the launch towards the shore, the trees on the riverbank became visible. I told my boy to walk along the riverbed to latch onto any tree he could find to get to safety.”
“He jumped and I followed. I don’t know if I’d plunged five or however many feet into the water before suddenly floating up to the surface. I quickly swam towards my son and grabbed him.”
Although the woman and her son survived, many others perished. Rescuers recovered 37 bodies until Friday afternoon. At least 72 others are currently in hospital with various injuries, mostly burn wounds.
The passengers injured in the fire engulfing MV Abhijan-10, a Barguna-bound launch, on the Sugandha river in Jhalakathi are undergoing treatment at Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital in Barishal.
The launch was en route to Barguna from Dhaka when the disaster struck. Vessels leaving the capital for the southern districts on Thursdays are typically more crowded than on other days.
Abhijan-10, too, was packed with people hoping to spend the weekend with their loved ones.
According to the BIWTA, there were about 400 passengers on board the Barguna-bound launch when it left Dhaka. However, some survivors claim that there were about 800 to 1,000 passengers.
The majority of passengers were wrapped in warm clothes as they slept on the vessel. The doors to the three-storey launch cabins were also closed. Just after 3 am, a sudden explosion accompanied a raging fire that engulfed every corner of the launch.
As the vessel lay anchored on the banks of the river in the Diakul area of Jhalakathi Sadar Upazila, Fire Service personnel rushed to the scene and began a rescue operation.
Fifteen units of firefighters tamed the blaze around 5:20 am, with the assistance of the Coast Guard, police and local volunteers.
Fire Service and Coast Guard personnel recover the bodies of victims after a fire swept through the Barguna-bound MV Abhijan-10 launch on the Sugandha river in the southern district of Jhalakathi on Friday, Dec 24, 2021. Photo: Hasibul Islam Hasan
Abdur Rahim is another passenger who managed to survive the ordeal. He was on the deck when he suddenly heard a loud noise.
Smoke started billowing from the back of the launch and within moments, the entire vessel was up in flames, he said. Rahim jumped off the deck in a fit of panic and was rescued by locals taking part in the rescue operation. After being given warm clothes, Rahim was taken to Jhalakathi town by a trawler.
Among the injured, 70 were taken to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital in Barishal. Many of them carried burn wounds but the hospital’s burns unit is currently closed, said Director HM Saiful Islam.
Sixty-seven people are being treated in the surgery unit while the others have been sent to Dhaka in critical condition.
