Sitakunda locals flee after horrific BM depot blaze
After the blast, the glass of various installations in the vicinity of the depot shattered
"I was shutting down my store at around 9pm. I had my dinner and went to bed. At around 10:30pm a loud explosion happened. Then I fled to a place two villages away from my home with eight members of my family."
Mohammad Ali, an elderly shopkeeper aged over 60 from Sitakunda was recollecting the horrifying memories of Saturday (4 June) night this morning. He owns a small grocery store next to the BM Container Depot in Sitakunda where a fire and blast killed at least 49 people and injured more than 200 including cops and fire service officials.
"My home is half a mile from the depot. During the explosion, a cylinder from the depot flew and fell into the pond of my house. As the explosions continued we fled to a relative's house two villages away to save our lives. I came back in the morning after the situation became normal. I never faced such a horrific situation," he told The Business Standard.
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Not only Ali, people of the surrounding areas felt the convulsions from the explosion of chemical combustibles at the depot despite being few kilometres away. The intolerable smell of chemicals spread in the air following the explosion. People rushed to find a safe spot in the face of doom.
Mohammad Mamun has an iron warehouse at Keshabpur next to the BM Depot. However, he lives in an area behind the BM container depot where the fire broke out.
"The explosion happened in the middle of the depot. And my house was behind it. The intensity of the explosion was so terrible that the wooden board of my house broke. The ceiling fan fell down," he told The Business Standard.
After the blast, the glass of various installations in the vicinity of the depot shattered. The aluminium doors and glass of the Keshabpur mosque broke. Even glasses of the trucks parked were also destroyed.
'Bring me my son'
Only 18 days ago, Ayesha's son Shahidul took a job as a peon of the fateful container depot. He has been missing since the incident.
"Bring me my son," Ayesha kept lamenting in search of Shahidul urging everyone on the scene.
She told The Business Standard, "My son went to work at 7:30pm. He was supposed to have dinner at home at 10:30pm. But he did not. His father also went to CMCH in search of Shahidul but he himself fell ill after being unable to find our son."
