Sitakunda Depot Fire Almost Under Control: Army

The fire at the BM container depot at Sitakunda in Chittagong was brought under control after 61 hours, the army said. They also said that there is no danger of major danger from this depot.

Lt Col Mohammad Ariful Islam Himel, a member, and commanding officer of the Urban Rescue and Search Team of the 24th Infantry Division of the Army, said this at a briefing on the latest situation on Tuesday (June 7) morning.

"Apparently there is nothing to fear," he said. It is being worked out whether there is anything more dangerous. There are specialists, they are watching. We will get a final report from them. I can ask them if there is any possibility of danger.

"We can say the fire is almost under control, now the smoke is coming out," he said. There are cloth items in the container, smoke is coming out of those items when water is being given. I don't think there's anything scary about that.

In response to a question, the commanding officer said, "We are giving utmost importance to prevent any more casualties here." I am taking some more time so that there are no more casualties. We are going less and less around the containers from which the smoke is coming out. The fire service is running low because we don't want any more casualties. Our main goal is to prevent further damage.

"It took us a while to control the fire," he said. Because the area is too big. Depot in an area of ​​about 26 acres. The number of containers here is more than 4 thousand. The containers were planted one after the other. It takes time to lower the containers.

The Bangladesh Army has stood by the people in any disaster and will continue to do so in the future, said Lieutenant Colonel Himel.

An army team has been working to control the fire since last Sunday (June 5).

The fire broke out inside the BM container depot loading point at around 9 pm on Saturday (June 4). While working on fire control, a container containing chemicals exploded with a loud sound.

The blaze has so far killed 41 people, including nine firefighters. More than four hundred were injured.