Death of many dreams as families told to prepare for the worst
At least 49 people were killed and more than 200, including cops and fire service officials, injured after a fire broke out at the Chattogram container depot on Saturday night
Mominul Hoque, an economics graduate from the Mohsin College in Chattogram, had dreams of repaying his parents. Mominul's father and mother had put themselves through financial hardship – all to ensure that their son pursues his ambitions of higher studies and finally brings the family solvency.
On Saturday night, Mominul, a computer operator, was hard at work at the BM Container Depot in Sitakunda upazila of Chattogram. His occupation was not a risky one and his parents would be at ease when he was at work.
Sometime after 8pm, however, many lives were about to be upended.
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On that night, Faridul Islam, Mominul's father, heard his phone ring. Seeing his son's name flash on the caller ID, Faridul received the call, still unaware of what was about to transpire.
"I could initially only hear his screams. He was crying. 'Father, there are explosions taking place in the depot one after another…" Faridul recalled, pausing to take a deep breath and wipe his tears.
"Then after some time, Mominul called again," he continued. "He said he had lost one of his legs in a blast. 'Please recite the Kalima to me'. These were the last words he ever said to me," he said.
Gripped by terror and panic, Faridul sprung to action. He immediately informed his relatives in Chattogram city and asked them to check the Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) – where most of the victims were taken – in search of his son.
Later, his uncle Khorshed Alam came to the hospital and identified Mominul's body.
Tayeb, a cousin of Mominul, was another family member to have gotten a final call.
"Mominul went to the depot at around 8pm. An hour later he called me and said - 'Save me, brother.' After that, I came to the CMCH and found him dead," Tayeb told The Business Standard, "he wanted to work to help his family. He also wanted to complete his masters. Now, those dreams will never be fulfilled."
While Mominul was breathing his last, Sumon, 30, a covered van driver, was desperately trying to escape a similar fate.
Although he survived, what he did to achieve that feat has left him permanently scarred.
"As soon as I heard the sound of the explosion, it was as if my ears exploded. I started to run," said Sumon, who is now undergoing treatment at the CMCH.
His feet momentarily failed him when he saw his path was littered with dead, burned and mangled bodies.
"I saw only corpses under my feet. I had to run over them," he said.
Elsewhere, Mohammad Tofail, a colleague of Sumon's, had entered the depot after 8pm with a consignment. "I was waiting outside my vehicle when the explosion happened. I remember being lifted off my feet. My face was on fire and then I lost consciousness," he said.
Tofail sustained burn injuries on his face and several other parts of his body.
The depot at Chattogram, once a beacon of Bangladesh's impressive growth, has now been reduced to ashes.
A little after 8pm on Saturday, the fire broke out. And among the embers lay buried the hopes and dreams of many.
At least 49 people were killed and more than 200, including cops and fire service officials, injured after a fire broke out at the container depot.
More than 200 people have been admitted to CMCH, Parkview Hospital, and Combined Military Hospital. Some 30 of them are in critical condition.
"Of the patients admitted at the hospital, 17 have burned their respiratory tracts. Anything can happen at any time," Dr Liton, registrar of CMCH's burn unit, informed.
Civil Surgeon Dr Mohammad Elias Chowdhury said, "Those who have burned their airways will soon need ICU support. Several private hospitals have been asked to help us in this regard.
"The condition of the 15 victims currently undergoing treatment at the Parkview Hospital of the port city is very critical. Some have lost their arms, some their legs in the explosion.
"One has been sent to Dhaka. Their family members have been told to prepare for the worse," said Chowdhury.
It is suspected that the fire originated from a Cambodia-bound container of hydrogen peroxide, although the cause of the fire has not been officially confirmed.
While "maximum compensation" has been guaranteed, it remains to be seen what each victim's life will be valued at.
Earlier in 2020, three workers were killed and three more injured after an oil tank exploded at a container depot in Chattogram's Patenga area.
In Bangladesh, there are 19 inland container depots, which handle almost 100% of export goods. These depots also handle 38 types of imported goods. All the depots have a storage capacity of 77,000 TEUs containers.
A deadly track record
Bangladesh has a history of industrial disasters, including factories catching fire with workers trapped inside. Monitoring groups have blamed corruption and lax enforcement for deadly incidents over the years.
In 2012, about 117 workers died when they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka.
The country's worst industrial disaster occurred the following year, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
In 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people. Another fire in Old Dhaka in a house illegally storing chemicals killed at least 123 people in 2010.
In 2021, a fire at a food and beverage factory outside Dhaka killed at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door.
