At least 49 people were killed and hundred others injured in a fire that originated on Saturday night at the BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture, in Chattogram. Clockwise from top left, a plastic container found at the depot after the blast reads 'hydrogen peroxide' on it - this was believed to spark the fire. Firefighters try to extinguish the deadly fire on Sunday. Relatives of the critically injured burn victims, who were flown to Dhaka, are in tears at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery. An injured person is being taken to a hospital at night after a blast on Saturday night — AFP/Focus Bangla Anwar Hossain Babu, a survivor of the hellish fire at BM Container Depot in Chattogram's Sitakunda who had both legs swathed in bandages, was still rubbing his eyes as he sat on a bed at Chattogram Medical College Hospital a few hours after leaving the scene, reports bdnews24.com.
An aide to a covered van driver, Babu believed the smoke that spread during the fire contained some toxic elements that caused the continuous burning of his eyes.
The privately-run BM Container Depot had around 4,300 containers and some of them contained different chemicals. Those chemicals caused repeated blasts and spread toxic smoke as the fire spread.
The fire broke out at the BM Container Depot in the Kadmarsul area around 9:30 pm on Saturday.
Chattogram Fire Service personnel struggled to bring the fire under control and reinforcements were called in from Feni, Noakhali and Cumilla at around 3:30 am.
As of 2 pm on Sunday, 41 bodies were recovered and brought to the Chattogram Medical College Hospital morgue, according to ASI Alauddin Talukder of the hospital's police outpost.
The chemicals stored in the depot prevented firefighters from controlling the blaze, said Fire Service Director General Brig Gen Md Main Uddin.
Some of the drums in the depot were labelled hydrogen peroxide, he told the media. Experts from the army went to the scene to manage the chemical fallout.
Anwar Hossain Babu was waiting to offload the covered van when the fire broke out in the depot on Saturday night.
Anwar said he could not find Sohel Rana, the driver of the covered van, after the fire broke out.
They drove in the goods-laden covered van from Dhaka to the container depot at around 12 pm on Saturday. Anwar fell asleep when they got stuck in the long queue of vehicles. At around 9 pm, driver Sohel woke him up. Sohel got off the van and was standing a short distance from the vehicle, speaking to his wife on phone, when the blast occurred.
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