News / Fire rips through warehouses at Dhaka Airport cargo village

© Maryna Kushnarova

A huge fire broke out at the cargo village at Dhaka airport on Saturday, halting operations at the main airport of the country, writes The Loadstar’s Bangladesh correspondent.

Scores of flights were unable to land and were diverted, while others have been suspended. There have been no reports of deaths, but some 25 members of the Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party (VDP) were injured while fighting the fire.

Nasir Ahmed Khan, former director, Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association, told The Loadstar the fire began at 2.30pm but could not be brought under full control until 8pm.

The fire broke out in the import cargo complex building, next to gate number 8 of the airport.

Kabir Ahmed, former president of the BFFA, told The Loadstar almost the whole import cargo complex had been destroyed, adding that it would create a crisis for air cargo players.

Civil aviation and tourism adviser Sk Bashir Uddin said: “We are trying to open flights as soon as possible tonight.” He said the export cargo village, however, remained safe.

Limon Hossain, a Dhaka-based importer told media his import cargo worth Tk700m ($5.83m) was destroyed, including shoes, bags, and Chinese garments.

BFFA director Nasir Uddin said: “We are trying to assess the extent of cargo damage. So far, we have learned that the area where international courier service goods were stored has been severely damaged. There was also a chemical warehouse in that area, and we have heard that it also caught fire.”

Aside from hub carrier Biman Bangladesh, other key airlines flying into Dhaka include Saudia, Qatar, Emirates, YTO Cargo Airlines, Atlas Air and Cathay.

Source: Rotate Live Capacity Database

Earlier this month, the government upgraded the screening facilities at the airport, which had been chronically poor. It installed a new explosive detection system (EDS) to help ease the bottlenecks caused in part by India’s decision to suspend inbound transhipments earlier this year. All four EDS machines are in working order, and ground handling charges were reduced by five to six US cents per kg to help the country’s shippers.

A container depot at Chittagong port was destroyed in 2022, when 16 chemical-laden export containers, full of hydrogen peroxide, caught fire. The airport disaster will no doubt add to concerns over the storage of hazardous materials.