A major fire broke out in a Rohingya refugee camp. Bangladesh destroyed houses and thick black smoke billowed over the area today before it was brought under control.

OUR fire broke out in Camp 11 in Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern border region home to at least one million Rohingya refugees. Most of the refugees fled Myanmar’s military crackdown in 2017, and the fire left some of them homeless again.

A massive fire has engulfed an overcrowded Rohingya refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

UNHCR reports 11,000 people left homeless as a result of camp fire ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ULQPJj9bo0

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 5, 2023

“Right now we don’t have a damage estimate, but we also don’t have information about casualties,” said Rafikul Islam, Cox’s Bazar Police Additional Superintendent.

He added that the fire had been brought under control and that high-ranking fire, police and refugee agency officials were at the scene. Farooq Ahmed, a local police spokesman, said it was unclear what caused the fire.

None of the police officers gave an estimate of the number of houses destroyed.

“I couldn’t save anything. Everything turned to ashes. Many were left homeless. I don’t know what will happen to us,” said Selim Ulla, a 40-year-old refugee who has six children.

“When we were in Myanmar, we had a lot of problems…our houses were on fire,” he said. “Now it’s happening again.”

Such fires are common in the refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar. A major fire in March 2021 resulted in the deaths of at least 15 refugees and the destruction of at least 10,000 homes.

According to APE-MPE, AFP and Reuters.