Sitakunda cotton warehouse fire doused after 21 hours

The fire broke out at a warehouse, next to the Nemsan Container Depot, just a week after an explosion at an oxygen plant in Sitakunda left six people dead

Chattogram Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 12 March 2023, 04:57 AM
Updated : 12 March 2023, 04:57 AM

Firemen have controlled a blaze at a cotton warehouse in Chattogram’s Sitakunda in a battle that stretched to 21 hours.

“The blaze was tamed around 7 am on Sunday, but smoke was still billowing out of the site,” said Touhidul Islam, a district administrative officer in Chattogram.

The fire broke out at the warehouse, next to the Nemsan Container Depot, just a week after an explosion at an oxygen plant in Sitakunda left six people dead.

As the warehouse was piled with cotton, firefighters found it difficult to control the leaping blaze. A bulldozer was used to break the walls and let the firemen enter the 10-acre warehouse. Excavators removed the pile of cotton from the site.

The firefighters did not have scope for using chemicals to douse the fire and water was the only option. But ponds, canals and reservoirs in the neighbourhood ran short of water, forcing them to collect it from the cantonment, Bhatiary, Barabkunda, and some other areas.

As many as 22 units of firemen, including eight units of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, four units from the Army, Navy and BGB each and two Air Force units worked to tame the fire.

The authorities opened an investigation into the incident.