Sitakunda oxygen plant fire: Death toll rises to 7

The death toll from the Sitakunda oxygen plant fire rose to seven as another person succumbed to his injuries at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) Sunday night, police said.

“Probesh Lal Sharma, 55, of Sitakunda died at the intensive care unit of CMCH at 10:30pm. He was an operator of the oxygen plant,” said Nurul Alam Ashek, in-charge of the hospital police outpost.

The other deceased were identified as Salauddin (33) of Lakshmipur, Ratan Nakrek (50) of Netrakona, Md Kader Mia (58) of Noakhali; Selim Richil (39), Shamsul Alam (65), and Md Farid (32) of Sitakunda.

The firefighting teams resumed rescue operations for the second day at Seema Oxygen in Sitakunda at 7am on Sunday.

They searched through the debris at the blast site until late evening. However, they did not find any more bodies, according to the Agrabad Control Room of the fire service.

The explosion at Seema Oxygen Plant in the Keshabpur area rocked nearby neighbourhoods Saturday, killing seven people and injuring more than 50.

Chattogram Civil Surgeon Ilias Chowdhury said the process of handing over the bodies of the deceased to their relatives was underway. “Tk 50,000 was given to the family of each deceased.”

Thirty people are now receiving treatment at CMCH. They were initially given Tk7,000 each.

Also, the authorities announced Tk 200,000 in monetary aid to the family of each deceased.

Meanwhile, the Chattogram district administration formed a seven-member probe committee to investigate the fire.

The committee was asked to submit a report within five working days, Deputy Commissioner Abul Bashar Mohammed Fakhruzzaman said.