At about 9:30 p.m. local time on 4th Jun, a fire broke out in a container warehouse near Chittagong Port in southern Bangladesh and caused a container containing chemicals to explode. The fire spread rapidly, killing at least 49 people and injuring more than 300 people. The fire was only brought under control on the morning of the 5th, but there were still sporadic fires. Between 1,000 and 1,300 full containers were burned or damaged in the accident, where millions of dollars' worth of ready-to-wear clothing products were in containers at the warehouse for export to Western retailers.
Fire official Jalal Ahmed said the fire broke out at BM Container Depot Ltd in Sitakunda, about 20 kilometers from the main port of Chittagong. 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. Until the morning of the 5th, emergency personnel were still trying to put out the fire, and military doctors had been dispatched to assist in the treatment.
BM Container Depot Ltd is a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture Inland Container Depot (ICD) located in Sitakunda, Chittagong region, Bangladesh. Started operation in early May 2011, as a bonded area for import and export container cargo handling, it has various modern facilities to store import and export cargo and empty/laden containers.
Their carriers that the yard cooperates with are: Maersk, APL, Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL, ONE, CMA CGM
Their cooperating freight forwarding and logistics companies are: DAMCO, DHL, Kangjie International Logistics Expeditors, Bolloré Logistics, FIT (Freight In Time), PRAN
Shenzhen Xunlaitong specializes in shipping export from Shenzhen to Australia & New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands and more business
www.xunlaitong.com