STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Masum Miah, assistant manager at BM Container Depot, willingly left the safety of his home on Saturday night to help guide the firefighters to battle the inferno.

He is now battling 15 percent burns at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

On Saturday night, Masud was safe in his bed at the rented house not far from the depot, talking on the phone with his wife who lives in Narsingdi and is seven months pregnant.

He told her that he was tired and was almost dozing off while talking. It was then that he received a phone call from his office, asking him to go to work. He told his wife that there was an accident and that he must go to office immediately.

He was soon at the depot to guide the firefighters through the alleyways as they fought the blaze.

A container exploded and a large ball of fire engulfed him, leaving his entire body peppered with burn injuries.

His younger brother Imran Nazir described these horrible events at the burn institute yesterday.

Masum was one of 14 injured brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital from Sitakunda yesterday. Seven of them were air-lifted to Dhaka while the rest arrived by road.

Twenty-two-year-old firefighter Gausul Azam lay in a bed inside the intensive care unit with 80 percent burns. The doctors performed a complicated surgery to save his life.

Azam rushed to the spot when the Sitakunda Fire Station was called after the fire broke out.

When a container exploded, Azam was directly in the line of fire, and his life hangs by a thread, doctors said.

Azam joined the fire service in August 2018, said Abdul Halim, an assistant director at Dhaka’s fire service.

Firefighter Robin Miah, the same age as Azam, was also inside the ICU with 60 percent burns. His chest, neck, and back were completely scalded in the blaze.