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ACTNews, COX'S
BAZAR – A fire broke out in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar,
southeastern Bangladesh, Sunday (9/1/2022). There have been no reports of
casualties. However, about 1,200 refugee tents were burned down and more than
5,000 were rendered homeless.
The fire was
reported to have started at 4:40 p.m. local time in Camp 16. Refugee tents made
of only easily caught fire, causing it to spread quickly in just a few minutes.
Mohammed Shamsud
Douza, a Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, said emergency
workers had brought the fire under control. The exact cause of the fire is yet
to be established.
One of the
refugees, Abdur Rashid (22) said the fire was so big that he ran to safety
without having time to save his belongings in his tent.
“Everything in my
house were burnt. My baby and wife were out. There were a lot of things in the
house. I saved 30,000 taka (350 dollars) from working as a day laborer. The
money is burned in the fire," said Abdur.
“Fire occurs here
frequently. There was no way we could put out the fire. There was no water. My
home is burned. Many documents, which I brought from Myanmar, are also burned.
And it is cold here,” he said.
Previously, a
blaze also tore through a Covid-19 treatment center for Rohingya refugees in
one of the camps in Cox's Bazar. In March last 2021, a massive fire destroyed
more than 10,000 refugee shelters and killed 15 Rohingya refugees. []
