Fire in Rohingya camp leaves 4,000 Rohingyas under open sky

A devastating fire erupted around 10:30am on Friday (May 24) at the shelter office of Caritas at Thaingkhali No-13 camp in Ukhia Rohingya camp of Cox's Bazar.

People started running around here and there in a desperate bid to save the belongings the camp dwellers had gathered in the small house after coming from Myanmar.

Eight units of the fire service started working one by one to control the camp's fire. Their hectic efforts finally succeeded in dousing the raging flames of the fire.

But already, the dreams of thousands of Rohingyas were burnt, leaving them to pass the coming night without any shelter under the open sky. However, there was no loss of life.

According to the incident report from the camp, 430 makeshift homes in the camp have been damaged by the fire while 210 shelters have been totally destroyed, leaving around 4,000 people homeless once again. Besides, 220 houses were damaged. And 45 shops were burnt.

Deputy Assistant Director of Cox's Bazar Fire Service and Civil Defense Atish Chakma said, “The camp fire has come under control. As soon as we got the news around 10:30am, we started working.”

The Rohingyas said when suddenly the Caritas office caught fire, we ran to safety. Then the houses were burnt. We are now under the open sky.

In this regard, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mizanur Rahman said that effective measures will be taken in coordination with various development organizations to provide assistance to the Rohingya refugees whose homes have been burnt.