After the overnight fire, the
fire service again started their operation on Sunday morning to extinguish the
fire in Amurbunia's Chhila area under Chadpai range of the eastern
Sundarbans in Bagerhat.
Beside the the three fire fighting units, members of the Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force and Bangladesh Coast Guard are also on the spot to help the fire fighters.
A 10-member firefighting team, led by Lt Commander Arafatul Arefin of the Navy's Mongla base, rushed to the spot early in the morning.
The Department of Forest also formed a three-member committee to investigate how the fire started, how far it spread, and the extent of the damage.
Earlier, the fire originated in Chhila area near Amurbunia patrol post of the mangrove forest around 3:30pm on Saturday. In the evening, three firefighting units and police arrived at the scene, but they decided to hold off on launching firefighting operations in the dark and waited until the morning as the nearest water source was the Bhola river two kilometres away.
Mamun Mahmud, deputy director of Khulna division's Fire Service and Civil Defence, said three units--Mongla, Morelganj and Sharankhola-- are started working to douse the fire and two more are ready if needed.
The fire had spread to an area of about 1.5 square kilometres, said Kazi Mohammad Nurul, the divisional forest officer for the East Sundarban Division, on Saturday night.
TF
