Burning questions rise as Sitakunda flames burn bright 70 hours later
At 7pm on Tuesday, 70 hours after the fire at BM Depot in Chattogram's Sitakunda broke out, two units of the fire service were seen still trying to douse the flames.
Smoke was rising from some 20 containers, so the fear of more blasts remained.
Md Akhtaruzzaman, assistant director of the fire service, said the depot contained around 26 containers of chemicals, of which 15 were destroyed. The rest had been moved to a safe place away from the compound, but they were still emitting smoke making it hard to declare those risk-free.
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While the army has declared the depot risk-free, the fire continues to burn.
At a briefing at 11:30am on Tuesday, Lt Col Ariful Islam Himel said the fire was under control, although it was not extinguished completely. Entry to the depot was also banned.
Two more bodies were recovered from the site yesterday, and the families of many of the injured have been told the victims would never be the same again.
Meanwhile, the police are dragging their feet in filing any case.
A final fallout of the fire are two fire stations in Sitakunda, both of which are left without a single personnel, most of whom either perished or were left injured in the blasts.
The fire service says, however, maintains that it is not lack of their capability but rather the lack of information which led to the delay in taming the flames and the resulting casualties.
Purna Chandra Mutsuddi, deputy director, Fire Service and Civil Defense, Feni, said, "We have the capability to put out all kinds of fires. But so many firefighters engaged in Sitakunda have been killed or injured, all because we were not informed of the chemical stockpile. Even after the blast, the authorities did not provide clear information about the goods stored at the depot."
When asked about filing cases against those responsible, Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed said that the government and fire service had formed committees to look into the matter.
"We will start the legal process as soon as we get the investigation report from these committees," he said.
Back at the site of the disaster, the fire service recovered two more bodies around 12:30 pm, bringing the official death toll to 43. The fire service, however, says they have recovered 44 bodies.
Of the two bodies recovered, the assistant director of the fire service said they could see the remains of firefighter's and security guard's uniforms on the bodies.
The bodies, however, were burnt beyond recognition and would require DNA tests to confirm their identities.
Earlier in the morning, firefighters had recovered various remains, including arms and legs from the depot. They believed those could belong to the missing firefighters as a team was engaged at the spot.
On Saturday night, a fire broke out at a BM container depot at Sitakunda in Chattogram, which left around 43 dead and more than 150 injured.
Five relatives of victims provided DNA in search of 2 missing, including three firefighters.
So far, 25 out of 43 people have been identified.
Hi-tech robot used to douse flames
The Bangladesh Fire Service deployed fire-fighting hi-tech robots for the first time to extinguish the massive Sitakunda fire.
A team of experts from Dhaka named "Hazmat" used the machines experimentally on Monday.
Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence force Director General Brig Gen Main Uddin said, "We use hi-tech robots for the first time on Sunday to control the Sitakunda fire. We have two robots and a special drone for surveillance. The automatic machine can spray water up to 300 metres."
Currently, Bangladesh has two fire-fighting LUF 60 robots, which were added to the fire service six months ago, a fire service insider said wishing anonymity.
