The fire started on Saturday night at the BM container depot in Sitakunda, Chittagong district, according to Bangladesh news agency Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).
Police and firefighters are trying to put out the blaze and rescue people.
The death toll could rise as some of the injured are in critical condition, Chittagong civilian surgeon Mohammed Elias Hossain said, according to Reuters news agency. He added that firefighters and police were among the injured.
Firefighters said firefighters were trying to extinguish the ongoing fire on Sunday afternoon, while containers full of chemicals, such as hydrogen peroxide or sulfur, were still erupting, Reuters reported. . Neighbors added that the blast shook the neighborhood and later shattered some of the glass in the local infrastructure.
Although the cause of the fire is unknown, fire officials said it may have originated from a container with hydrogen peroxide and spread to other containers.
“It’s really getting harder and harder as toxic fumes engulf the area,” Newton Das, a firefighter, told Reuters.
Chattogram Divisional Commissioner Asharf Uddin said the families of the dead will be compensated with 50,000 taka from Bangladesh ($ 560), while the injured and their families will also be compensated.
The incident is the latest in a series of fatal industrial accidents over several years in the South Asian nation.
In December, at least 38 people were killed after a fire destroyed a rocket in the Sugandha River in the southern district of Jhalakathi. A few months earlier, at least 52 people had been killed and about 50 injured when a large fire engulfed a juice factory in Rupganj, east of the capital Dhaka.
With additional Reuters reports.