Fires in Cox's Bazar refugee camps ^{CEFR B2}

Fires have repeatedly reshaped the refugee settlements in Cox's Bazar, turning daily life into a cycle of destruction and rebuilding. Between May 2018 and December 2025 there were 2,425 documented fires, affecting over 100,000 people and destroying more than 20,000 shelters; a further fire in January 2026 displaced 2,185 people.

Some blazes were particularly damaging. On 22 March 2021 a fire in Camp 9 killed fifteen people, displaced 45,000 refugees and destroyed more than 10,000 shelters. On 5 March 2023 a blaze in Camp 11 destroyed 2,800 shelters and displaced 12,000 people; a later investigation called that fire "planned sabotage." On 7 January 2024 flames in Camp 5 consumed 900 shelters and displaced around 5,000 people, including 3,500 children.

Operational challenges make fires more dangerous and harder to fight. Shelters are built of bamboo, tarpaulin and plastic rope and lack fire-resistant materials. In some blocks population density exceeds 95,000 people per square kilometre. Narrow corridors, strong winds, depleted water hydrants, cramped access roads and households resisting shelter demolition all help fires to spread and limit firefighting access. Barbed wire around the camps also trapped people during the March 2021 inferno, contributing to deaths and injuries.

There are signs some fires were deliberate: investigations and witness accounts link several large blazes to armed groups. Killings attributed to militants rose from 22 in 2021 to 90 in 2023, and abductions increased from about 100 in 2021 and approximately 200 in 2022 to over 700 in the first nine months of 2023. Community leaders and police describe attacks, threats and obstruction of firefighting efforts.

The human and economic costs are wide. Fires destroy identity papers, medical records and learning spaces; in January 2024 at least 1,500 students lost access to schooling overnight. Humanitarian responses supply emergency shelter, food, water and medical care, but prevention plans have stalled. Promised plans for 50,000 semi-permanent fire-resistant shelters remain unfunded after aid cuts in early 2025. Officials and agencies call for relocating families to less-dense layouts, building fire-resistant shelters, creating firebreaks, removing hazardous fencing and establishing professional fire services, but the government's position that the settlements are not permanent limits large-scale long-term investment.