500 shelters gutted in fire at Rohingya camp

Around 500 shelters at a Rohingya camp in Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar were gutted in a fire yesterday.

The blaze broke out around 3:00am in D-4 block of Camp-16 in Palongkhali union and later spread to nearby shelters and sheds, triggering panic among camp residents, said Dollar Tripura, an official of Ukhiya Fire Service Station.

“Around 500 shelters were gutted in the fire. Many were forced to move to safer places at night, creating chaos within the camp,” he said.

On information, two firefighting units rushed to the scene around 3:20am, and brought the fire under control around 7:30am, he also said.

The extent of damage could not be determined immediately, while four to five people suffered minor injuries in the incident, the official added.

Primarily, the fire is suspected to have originated from a cooking stove in a kitchen, he said.

Fire incidents have been recurring in Rohingya camps in recent months, raising concerns over safety and fire prevention there. On December 26 last year, a hospital at Camp-4 was destroyed by fire, while around 10 shelters were gutted in a blaze at the Kutupalong camp the previous night.