Fire in Khagrachari

A devastating fire broke out in Mohajanpara in Khagrachari at the end of the Biju celebrations. Neighbours and fire fighters were quite to respond and no one appears to have been injured or killed.

A fire broke out in a house in Mahajanpara in Khagrachari in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Neighbours and the fire brigade quickly responded. No one was hurt or injured. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
A fire broke out in a house in Mahajanpara in Khagrachari in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Neighbours and the fire brigade quickly responded. No one was hurt or injured. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World


Neighbours were quick to respond, getting water from nearby tubewells. Jammed telephone networks hindered getting the information to the fire brigade. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
Neighbours were quick to respond, getting water from nearby tubewells. Jammed telephone networks hindered getting the information to the fire brigade. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Neighbours quickly gathered to try and douse the fire. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
Neighbours quickly gathered to try and douse the fire. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Once they received the message, the fire brigade was quick to respond. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
Once they received the message, the fire brigade was quick to respond. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Neighbours looking for survivors. As it turned out most of the inhabitants were out and there was only an elderly couple whom neighbours were able to save. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
A large number of people worked alongside the fire brigade, to help douse the fire. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

As the fire is prevented from spreading, onlookers search for signs of survivors. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
As the fire is prevented from spreading, onlookers search for signs of survivors. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

 
Firemen put out the last embers. No one was injured. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
Firemen put out the last embers. Luckily, no one was injured. Photo: Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

 
 
 

Author: Shahidul Alam

Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018. A photographer, writer, curator and activist, Shahidul Alam obtained a PhD in chemistry before switching to photography. His seminal work “The Struggle for Democracy” contributed to the removal of General Ershad. Former president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, Alam set up the Drik agency, Chobi Mela festival and Pathshala, South Asian Media Institute, considered one of the finest schools of photography in the world. Shown in MOMA New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Royal Albert Hall and Tate Modern, Alam has been guest curator of Whitechapel Gallery, Winterthur Gallery and Musee de Quai Branly. His awards include Mother Jones, Shilpakala Award and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dali International Festival of Photography. Speaker at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Oxford and Cambridge universities, TEDx, POPTech and National Geographic, Alam chaired the international jury of the prestigious World Press Photo contest. Honorary Fellow of Royal Photographic Society, Alam is visiting professor of Sunderland University in UK and advisory board member of National Geographic Society. John Morris, the former picture editor of Life Magazine describes his book “My journey as a witness”, (listed in “Best Photo Books of 2011” by American Photo), as “The most important book ever written by a photographer.”

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