DHAKA – A large fire broke out through a Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Monday, destroying thousands of homes and killing several people, officials and witnesses said in the worst fire to hit the settlement in years.
On video and photos is a flame that tore through the Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar. Black smoke billowed over burning stockings and tents as people scrambled to repair their belongings.
“Fire services, rescue and response teams and volunteers are on scene to try to control the fire and prevent it from spreading further,” said Louise Donovan, spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar.
Mohammed Shamsud Douza, the Bangladeshi deputy official responsible for the refugees, said authorities were trying to contain the blaze.
Rohingya refugees in the camps said many houses had been burnt down and several people had been killed, but neither the authorities nor the UNHCR could confirm the number of deaths. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
More than a million Rohingya live in camps in southern Bangladesh, the vast majority fleeing Myanmar in 2017 due to a military crackdown carried out with ‘genocide’, according to UN investigators, accusing the denial of Myanmar.
Zaifur Hussein, a 50-year-old refugee who escaped the fire but lost his home and hid with friends, said he believed dozens had been killed and that the fence around the camps made it difficult to escape.
“When we were in Myanmar, we faced a lot of problems … it destroyed everything,” he said. “Now it has happened again.”
Snigdha Chakraborty, the director of Catholic Emergency Services in Bangladesh, said she was concerned about the lack of medical facilities in the area.
“Medical facilities are basic and burns require sophisticated treatment, and hospital beds are already partially taken up with COVID-19 patients,” she said. “Most likely there will be deaths because the fire is so big.”
A Rohingya leader in Cox’s Bazar, a piece of land bordering Myanmar in southeastern Bangladesh, said he had seen several bodies.
“Thousands of huts were completely burnt down,” Mohammed Nowkhim told Reuters.
Another major fire tore through the camp in January, destroying homes but causing no casualties.
The risk of fire in the densely populated camps is great, and Monday’s fire was the biggest yet, said Onno Van Manen, country director of Save the Children, in Bangladesh.
“This is another devastating blow to the Rohingya refugees living here. We just lost one of our health facilities in another fire a few days ago,” he said.
The UNHCR said humanitarian partners had mobilized hundreds of volunteers from nearby camps for the support action, as well as vehicles and equipment for fire safety.