Over 2,000 shanties gutted in Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camp fire

Staff reporter :
A devastating fire ripped through the combustible material made shanties in Balukhali camp in Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar on Sunday, without any casualty.
The blaze quickly spread through the camps that served as temporary living homesteads for the Rohingyas and gutted over 2000 shanties, rendering about 15,000 Rohingyas shelterless.
“From the preliminary report, around 2,000 shanties were gutted. Of these, 20 were private hospitals and health centres, learning centres for Rohingya children and relief distribution centres,” Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mizanur Rahman said.
He also said that “A Rohingya adolescent is detained with a firebox in his possession. Many have seen him setting fire on the shanties. After an interrogation, everything will come to light.”
“The fire incident is really mysterious as a number of fire accidents occurred in a number of blocks in the last few days,” he said.
On February 15, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence Ministry reported that a total of 222 fire incident occurred in the Rohingya camps in 2021. Of these, 99 were accidental, while 60 were subversive and the causes of 63 fire accidents were unknown.
Soon after the fire, the Rohingyas -both old and children – began to run away for safety and moved whatever belongings they could carry to save those from fire.
RRRC said that they did not find any death toll report, but some of the Rohingyas were admitted to hospital for preliminary treatment.
 Police and firefighters were alerted to the incident, which reportedly started at Block-D of Camp-11 on Sunday afternoon, and soon spread to camp-9 and camp-10.
At least, 10 units of firefighters from Ukhiya and Teknaf Fire Stations rushed to the scene to extinguish the flames, according to Ukhiya Police Station Officer-in-Charge Sheikh Mohammad Ali.
However, the presence of cylinders in every shanty made it challenging to control the blaze, and it took a long time to control the fire.
The Rohingya camps, which are made of flammable materials, are highly concentrated, and there is a deficit of fire extinguishing
equipment, making the situation even more challenging. One of the Rohingyas Mohammad Ullah said, “At least 50,000 Rohingyas, mostly women and children, live in Block-D. As soon as the fire broke out, the camp residents scrambled to take shelter in safe place. We took shelter in a nearby hill.”
Unfortunately, the issue of fire incident has become common in the Rohingya camps, and it has remained out of proper attention despite the local and international communities paying much attention to the lives and livelihoods of the Rohingyas.
The Balukhali camp has seen fire incidents in the past, with the most recent one occurring on 22 March 2021, where at least 15 people lost their lives, and more than 500 were injured in a massive fire. Around 10,000 shanties were gutted at that time.
The Rohingyas, who have fled persecution in Myanmar, are now living in dire conditions in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, and the recurring fire incidents add to their already precarious living conditions.
The Rohingya leaders said that the authorities must take swift action to address the issues related to the safety and security of the Rohingyas.
Proper attention must be given to the safety measures required in the camps, including the provision of fire extinguishing equipment and training for the inhabitants on how to handle such incidents, they said.