Fire Service inspects 25 container depots in Port city

C T Online Desk: After the fire and explosion at BM Container Depot in Sitakunda, 6 teams of fire service have visited 25 container depots in the city. During this time they collected all kinds of documents from the depot authorities. The fire service started inspecting the container depots in Chittagong from Saturday (June 11). Out of 25, 22 container depots are operational. 3 container depots are inoperative. The inspection of the fire service ended on Tuesday (June 14). The inspection team will submit their report on Wednesday (June 15). That report will be sent to the Dhaka headquarters. Depots that have irregularities will be alerted by another letter of return from there. On Tuesday, the inspection team of the fire service collected all kinds of documents including clearance from the Department of Environment, license of the fire service from four other depots in Sitakunda including the BM container depot. Faruk Hossain Sikder, assistant director of Agrabad Fire Service, told media  that the depot authorities have been verbally warned to keep containers in the depot in a planned manner. Later they will be officially given a letter. He said that various documents and information have been collected besides checking what products are kept inside the depots, how they are managed, what are the security measures. Depots which do not have adequate fire safety measures are advised to implement them. Under labor law, at least 18 percent of workers in each department of an organization must be trained in firefighting, emergency rescue and first aid, and the use of portable fire extinguishers. Safety must be ensured by forming firefighters, rescue teams and first aid teams (six in each team) from the trained workers. It is learned that three of the six container depots in Sitakunda do not have fire hydrants and special safety training. Of the six container depots, only Port Link Container Depot has received information from the fire service inspection team. The containers are kept there unplanned. They have been instructed to keep them in a planned manner. The fire service team has asked the depot management to keep the containers filled with chemicals separate from other containers. They have suggested building a wall for this. On June 4, a fire and explosion took place at the BM container depot in Sitakunda. So far 49 people have died in this incident. Of these, 10 are members of the fire service. More than two hundred people were injured and admitted to different hospitals in Chittagong and Dhaka. After the accident, the question arose as to whether the inspection and licensing of the fire service was proper. For this, the fire service took initiative to inspect all the container depots and important installations  in the city.