Bangladesh’s fire tragedy: Dreams hanging between life and death

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Eighteen-year-old Amin Sheikh has been clinging on to life at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in the capital Dhaka since Sunday evening.

He is one of the 15 fire victims who have been severely injured in a devastating fire Saturday at a container depot in Bangladesh’s southern port city of Chattogram and shifted to Dhaka for better treatment.

The catastrophic fire has already claimed 49 lives and injured more than 300 others, with many of them in critical condition.

Born to a poor family, Sheikh, the eldest son, began working at the container depot in Chattogram’s Sitakunda area as a third-class employee a couple of weeks ago to earn extra money so he could attend college.

He suffered serious burns from the fire and was shifted to a hospital in Dhaka when his condition began deteriorating.

Sheikh’s mother, Parul Begum, has been waiting in the hospital and crying.

“Realizing our economic crisis, my son went to the depot to earn money so he could get admission to any university for higher education. Now he is struggling for life. I can’t bear the pain of it anymore. Please pray for my son,” Begum told Anadolu Agency.

Like Begum, many relatives of the fire victims were weeping in front of the ward over their seriously injured loved ones.

Close to Begum, another fire victim’s relative, Bibi Marium, was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. Her young daughter was playing with her shoes on the floor and curiously looking at the gathering.

Marium’s husband, Mohammad Rubel, was a driver of a car, locally called a covered van, at the container depot. He suffered burns to most of his body from the fire.

The mother of two children, Marium was gravely worried about their future if something bad happened to her husband.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) said Monday that the tragic incident illustrates the urgent need to ensure the proper handling and storage of chemicals, proper training for storage facility staff at awareness and operational levels, and effective crowd control during an emergency.

The incident also underscores the need to work together towards effective industrial and enterprise safety frameworks and their enforcement, the ILO added in its statement.

The ILO also called for a review of regulations and enforcement in the transport and logistics sector and the payment of adequate compensation to injured and disabled workers and families of workers who lost their lives in work-related accidents.

- Allegation of mismanagement

“When the fire started, my husband was inside the depot and wanted to get out of the site with his car. But the authorities did not permit him to go out. Even the back gate of the depot was locked,” Marium said, quoting her husband.

Recalling that last conversation with her husband by phone, she added that if all of the gates had been opened and the workers had been allowed to leave the site immediately, many of them could have moved to a safer location.

“My husband always dreams of helping both of our children get a good education. We have no savings. What will be the future of my kids if something bad happens to my husband?” she said.

The director of the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Dr. Md. Abul Kalam, said at a press briefing Monday that at the government’s direction, they are providing all necessary support to the fire victims with utmost priority free of cost.

“We have formed an eight-member medical team for better treatment of the fire victims and we are closely monitoring the treatment. But we can’t ascertain anything specifically as the condition of most of them is not good,” he said.

- Big tragedy for firefighters

In the fire, one of the deadliest in the country’s history, nine members of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense were also killed while dozens of others were injured.

“We had a record high of three deaths in any single fire incident. But this time, nine of our members were killed. We are extremely shocked by this incident,” Brigadier General Md Main Uddin, director general of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense, told Anadolu Agency.

The fire broke out around 11.00 p.m. local time (1700GMT) at a container and spread rapidly to others in the depot, which contains more than 1,000 containers.

A team of experts from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has begun collecting DNA samples from the victims’ relatives to identify the bodies.

Bangladeshi authorities have vowed that the incident will be thoroughly investigated to determine whether it was an accident or if any criminal motive was behind it.

*SM Najmus Sakib contributed to this story