Sitakunda Blast: 300 houses, 10 factories suffer losses worth Tk50 lakh

On Saturday afternoon, Golam Maula, a scrap dealer, was sitting in his home in Sitakunda's Kadam Rasul area, watching TV. Suddenly, his house shook with a loud noise and glasses of all the windows shattered.

"The intensity of the sound was so high that the whole house shook for 15-20 seconds. I sat on the sofa for a few minutes after losing consciousness. Later, I went to the roof and saw smoke coming out from a factory far away," said Golam Maula.

"After a while, I learnt that an explosion took place at Seema Oxygen plant about 300 meters away from my home," he added.

"Not only in my house, but almost all the window glasses in the houses of my brothers, uncles and neighbours in the vicinity were shattered by the loud blast." 

Ruby Khandakar, a housewife, was at her home about half a kilometre away from the accident site. The window of the bedroom was open, so the shock of the explosion hit her almirah directly.

"The curtains of my window fell down due to the blast. Then a door of the almirah opened up. My 5-year-old daughter beside me cried for a long time in panic," said Ruby Khandakar.

"The loud noise of the explosion was as terrible as the BM Container Depot explosion that happened 9 months ago."

Mohammad Belal Uddin, president of Sonaichhari Union Awami League, told The Business Standard, "In yesterday's explosion, more than 300 houses and 10 factories were damaged in an area of 1 km."

He also said that the amount of damage to the common people of the area would be Tk50 lakh.

Mahbubul Alam, president of Jatiya Sramik League's Sitakunda upazila branch said that the residents of the upazila are being severely affected due to unplanned industrialisation in the locality.

"The environment of this area is almost destroyed. Millions of people in this town are suffering from various diseases," he said, demanding that the factories set up in Sitakunda locality be shifted to industrial zones.

On Saturday (4 March) around 4:30pm, a terrible explosion took place at the Seema Oxygen plant, a subsidiary of Seema Steel, in Kadam Rasul area of Sitakunda. The entire infrastructure of the factory collapsed. Several nearby factories and houses were damaged.

After the explosion, four dead bodies and 30 injured people were rescued from the factory by local people, fire service and Gauchia Committee volunteers. Also, two people died half a km away from the blast after being hit by two iron sheets that flew towards them.