Balukhali Rohingya camp fire: 2 children killed, several people suffer burn injuries

Two children were burnt to death and many people suffered burn injuries in a fire that broke out in Balukhali Rohingya camp in Palangkhali union of Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya upazila today.

"Two children were killed and many were injured in the fire," Rohingya community leader Jamal Hossain Lalu of camp no-9/A-2 block confirmed to our Cox's Bazar correspondent tonight.

Shamsud Douza Nayan, additional commissioner at Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commission, said 10 fire service units from Ukhiya, Ramu and Cox's Bazar stations brought the fire under control around 11:00pm.

He said 1,500-2,000 houses were gutted while 5,000-6,000 houses were burnt partially.

However, Chattogram Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters Divisional Director Md Azizul Islam told The Daily Star that firefighters with fire engines from Cox's Bazar, Ramu, Chakaria, Ukhia, Satkhania, and Teknaf stations are working on the areas and trying to control the blaze.

"Two burnt bodies were recovered from the places affected by the fire as per the report from Cox's Bazar Fire Service officials till 11:30pm. Due to network disruptions in the camp area, the details of the casualties or update of fire could not be reported over phone," he said.

APBN and police sources said the fire is razing at Camp-8 East, 8-West, nine and 10 and spreading over an area of nearly a kilometre, gutting establishments.

Police sources also said Additional Deputy Inspector General (Add DIG) of Chattogtam Range Jakir Hossain Khan visited the fire spot with Cox's Bazar police officials.

The fire broke out around 4:15pm today.

Video shot by a resident showed a blaze ripping through the Balukhali camp in Cox's Bazar, with people scrambling to recover their possessions amid burning shanties and tents, Reuters reported.

"Fire services, rescue and response teams and volunteers are at the scene to try to control the fire and prevent it spreading further," said Louise Donovan, spokesperson for U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in Cox's Bazar, where refugees live in ramshackle huts.

Rohingya refugees in the camps said many homes were burned down and several people had died, but neither the authorities nor UNHCR confirmed there were any deaths.

More than a million Rohingya live in the mainland camps in southern Bangladesh, the vast majority having fled Myanmar in 2017 from a military-led crackdown that U.N investigators said was executed with "genocidal intent", charges Myanmar denies.

"The fire spread so quickly that before we understood what happened, it caught our house. People were screaming and running here and there. Children were also running ... crying for their family," Tayeba Begum, a Save the Children volunteer who witnessed the fire, was quoted by Reuters.

A Rohingya leader in Cox's Bazar, a sliver of land bordering Myanmar in southeastern Bangladesh, said he saw several dead bodies.

"Thousand of huts were totally burned down," Mohammed Nowkhim told Reuters.

Mohammed Shamsud Douza, the deputy Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, said: "We are trying to control the blaze."

Another large blaze tore through the camp in January, destroying homes but causing no casualties.

The risk of fire in the densely populated camps is high, and Monday's blaze was the largest yet, said Onno Van Manen, Country Director of Save the Children in Bangladesh.

"It is another devastating blow to the Rohingya refugees who live here. Just a couple of days ago we lost one of our health facilities in another fire," he said.

The UNHCR said humanitarian partners had mobilised hundreds of volunteers from nearby camps for the support operation, as well as fire safety vehicles and equipment.

"So far the fire has affected shelters, health centres, distribution points and other facilities," spokeswoman Donovan said.