Rohingya refugees watch smoke rising following a fire at the Rohingya refugee camp in Balukhali, southern Bangladesh, March 22, 2021. (PHOTO / AP)

DHAKA - Bangladeshi officials began investigating the cause of a massive fire that killed at least seven people and displaced tens of thousands at a Rohingya refugee camp, as officials sifted through the debris looking for more victims on Tuesday.

More than a thousand Red Cross staff and volunteers worked with fire services to extinguish the blaze, spread over four sections of the camp containing roughly 124,000 people

The fire ripped through the Balukhali camp near the southeastern town of Cox’s Bazar late on Monday, burning through thousands of huts as people scrambled to save their meagre possessions.

“Everything has gone. Thousands are without homes,” Aman Ullah, a Rohingya refugee from the Balukhali camp, told Reuters.

“The fire was brought under control after six hours but some parts of the camp could be seen smoking all night long.”

Police have so far confirmed seven deaths.

“We have information of seven people that died in the fire. Among them, three children were buried last night. Today four bodies were recovered .... all burnt beyond recognition,” said Zakir Hossain Khan, a senior police official.

“The cause of the fire is still unknown,” Khan told Reuters by telephone from the camps. “Authorities are investigating to determine the cause of the fire.”

Sanjeev Kafley, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’s delegation head in Bangladesh, said more than 17,000 shelters had been destroyed and tens of thousands had been displaced.

More than a thousand Red Cross staff and volunteers worked with fire services to extinguish the blaze, spread over four sections of the camp containing roughly 124,000 people, around one-tenth of the estimated 1 million Rohingya refugees in the area, he added.

Humanitarian organization Refugees International, which estimated 50,000 people had been displaced, said the extent of the damage may not be known for some time

“I have been in Cox’s Bazar for three-and-a-half years and have never seen such a fire,” he told Reuters. “These people have been displaced two times. For many there is nothing left.”

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BARBED WIRE

Some witnesses said that barbed wire fencing around the camp trapped many people, hurting some and leading international humanitarian agencies to call for its removal.

Humanitarian organization Refugees International, which estimated 50,000 people had been displaced, said the extent of the damage may not be known for some time.

“Many children are missing, and some were unable to flee because of barbed wire set up in the camps,” it said in a statement.

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John Quinley of Fortify Rights, a rights organization working with Rohingya, said he had heard similar reports, adding the fences had hampered the distribution of humanitarian aid and vital services at the camps in the past.

“The government must remove the fences and protect refugees,” Quinley said. “There have now been a number of large fires in the camps including a large fire in January this year... The authorities must do a proper investigation into the cause of the fires.”

The vast majority of the people in the camps fled Myanmar in 2017 amid violence against Rohingya muslims in the Rakhine State.