A beach getaway turned into a nightmare when flames raced through a wooden resort while guests were still asleep, trapping families inside.
Ten people, including children, were killed when fire tore through a wooden beach resort in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026.
The blaze broke out around 7 a.m. at the Tuptup Resto and Resort at Inani, near the Bay of Bengal in a district that is a popular destination for domestic tourists, said Syed Mohammad Morshed Hossain, deputy assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence in Cox’s Bazar district. About 18 tourists were staying at the resort. Hossain said four people were injured; another count put the number of injured hospitalized at six.
“Some people had taken shelter in the washrooms to save their lives, but they died there,” said volunteer Saiful Islam, who assisted at the scene. He said the resort’s guests were sleeping when the fire started.
Four of the dead were found inside two toilets on the resort’s second floor, said Toufiqul Islam Bhuiyan, deputy director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence’s Chattogram division. Several people jumped from windows and balconies to escape, bdnews24.com reported.
No Extinguishers, No Alarms, No License
Strong sea winds pushed the flames through the wooden building, Bhuiyan said. Such establishments are required to have portable fire extinguishers, fire alarms, hosepipes and a fire safety plan, Bhuiyan said, but the resort had none of them. It also lacked a fire safety license.
The resort had been built only seven or eight months earlier, and there was reportedly a dispute over ownership of the land, Bhuiyan said. Fire officials inspected the resort in June and warned it about fire risks, but it kept operating without the required license. The Department of Environment had served the resort a notice earlier this year and assessed Tk 100,000 in compensation, a department deputy director told bdnews24.com.
A Frantic Race Against the Flames
The Cox’s Bazar Fire Service received the alert at 7:23 a.m. Firefighters reached the resort around 8 a.m. and brought the fire under control at 8:15 a.m., according to the Fire Service. It was fully doused around 11 a.m.
Local residents joined the rescue and the effort to beat back the flames, with support from police, the Bangladesh Border Guard and the Bangladesh Coast Guard. Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner A Mannan said the fire was initially believed to have started at the kitchen stove, but that could not be confirmed. A five-member committee has been formed to determine the cause.
Owner Named, Manager Under Arrest
Police filed a case late Saturday against 23 people, four of them named and the rest unidentified, Prothom Alo reported. Resort owner Md Tanvir was named as the prime accused, along with Newaz Morshed. Ashis Sutradhar, a sub-inspector of Ukhiya Police Station, filed the case, and Ukhiya Police Station Officer-in-Charge Atikur Rahman Majumder confirmed it.
The resort’s manager was detained at the scene Saturday afternoon and has since been shown arrested in the case. The owner has not been found. Cox’s Bazar Superintendent of Police ANM Sajedur Rahman said no definitive statement could be made about the cause of the fire until the investigation is complete.
The identities of six of the 10 victims have been provisionally established, said Subaktagin Mahmud Sohel, resident medical officer at Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital, though authorities have not yet confirmed which body belongs to which victim. The four still unidentified include two women, one child and one man. Six of the dead are believed to be members of the same family, according to local officials. The bodies will be handed to relatives after DNA testing.
Among the dead was a five-year-old boy.
