At about 9:30 p.m. local time on Saturday (June 4), a fire broke out in a container warehouse near Chittagong Port in southern Bangladesh and caused an explosion of containers containing chemicals. The fire spread rapidly, killing at least 49 people, More than 300 people were injured, and the fire was not under control until the morning of the 5th, but there were still sporadic fires. Warehouses hold millions of dollars’ worth of ready-to-wear garments ready to be exported to Western retailers. Between 1,000 and 1,300 full containers were burned or damaged as a result of the accident.

The fire broke out just before midnight, and hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene to help rescue, but an hour after the fire broke out, there was a huge explosion at the scene – a chain explosion of several containers containing chemical products, and the implicated ship The companies include Maersk, US President APL, Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL, Ocean Network ONE, and CMA CGM.

Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary general of the Bangladesh Inland Container Yards Association (BICDA), said the scale of the explosion was no less than that of the 2020 explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, when about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded at the port. According to sources, the BM yard followed the usual operating procedures in handling hydrogen peroxide, but incomprehensible is that the fire and explosion did occur. “Ruhul Amin Sikder said that there were about 1,300 full containers in the yard when the fire started, of which 800 were export cargo containers, about 85% of which were ready-made garments (Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment exporter); 500 import cargo containers. Some of the containers were burnt in the accident, causing economic losses of at least US$100 million. Containers containing hazardous chemicals are often stored near containers of apparel products ready for export, said Khairul Alam Sujan, vice-president of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association.

Another source said that the fire at the BM container yard was caused by the authorities failing to comply with international safety guidelines and concealing information that the warehouse had stored relevant highly flammable substances. Al-Razi Chemical Complex Ltd, a factory that manufactures the flammable chemical hydrogen peroxide, has a warehouse at the BM Container Yard and stores dangerous goods that are not prepared for export to Cambodia without any safety measures.

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