Cox’s Bazar Resort Fire, Inani Beach: 10 Tourists Killed in Unlicensed Wooden Resort

What happened

Ten tourists were killed on the morning of Saturday, 17 October 2026, when fire swept through Tuptup Resto & Resort, a wooden beachside resort and restaurant at Patuartek on Inani Beach, beside Marine Drive in Ukhiya upazila of Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh. Cox’s Bazar is Bangladesh’s busiest beach destination. At least one international wire headline wrongly placed the fire in India; every Bangladeshi report and the Fire Service place it at Inani.

According to The Daily Star, the fire started at around 6.30 am. A neighbour saw flames first near the kitchen, which sat beside the reception. Other outlets give 7 am or 7.30 am. The Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) says it got the call at 7.25 am. Two units from Ukhiya Fire Station, about 20 km away, reached the spot at 8 am, and the fire was fully out by 11 am. Strong sea winds pushed the flames through the wooden building, said Syed Mohammad Morshed Hossain, deputy assistant director of the Cox’s Bazar Fire Service.

The building had concrete pillars, but its floors, walls and staircases were wood, with bamboo and timber used elsewhere. Most reports describe it as three storeys; AP described it as a two-storey wooden-framed building. The only staircase to the upper floors was near the reception, where the fire was burning. Guests woken by smoke broke windows and jumped, or got out over a rear balcony. Four of the dead were found in toilets on an upper floor, Prothom Alo and The Daily Star reported.

The people who died

All ten dead were tourists, according to the Fire Service and The Daily Star. No staff deaths have been reported. An FSCD spokesman told AP that the dead included five women and a five-year-old boy, and that most had travelled from Dhaka. bdnews24 reported that six members of one Dhaka family, who had come for a short holiday, were among them. The Business Standard reported that a family of four from Jashore, a couple and their two young daughters, has been missing since the fire, and that the four bodies not yet identified are suspected to be theirs.

The bodies were burnt beyond recognition. They are in the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital morgue, and DNA samples have gone to the CID laboratory in Dhaka because Cox’s Bazar has no forensic DNA lab. Officials told The Business Standard that matching could take three to four weeks. Relatives reported 11 people missing although 10 bodies were found, and the probe committee is checking whether the eleventh person was at the resort at all.

Injury counts differ. The Daily Star first reported four injured, AP and Prothom Alo six, and The Daily Star and The Business Standard later said seven were treated. Three, including a doctor couple, were flown to Dhaka by air ambulance. By 18 October no fire victim remained in the Cox’s Bazar hospital, its resident medical officer said.

Response and investigation

FSCD Director General Brig Gen Sultanul Afreen Junaid said the resort had no fire safety licence. An FSCD inspector had visited in June and served a notice on 11 June flagging the building as hazardous, but the owners kept the business running. Fire officials at the site found too few extinguishers and no proper firefighting arrangements. The Cox’s Bazar Development Authority told bdnews24 that it had issued removal directives in 2023 and 2024 because the site is in a no-development zone, and the Department of Environment had levied a compensation assessment of Tk 1 lakh this year. Deputy Commissioner Md Abdul Mannan said the resort was built illegally.

Ukhiya police registered a negligence case late on 17 October against 23 people: four named, including the owner as prime accused, and 19 unidentified. The manager was detained at the scene that afternoon, shown arrested and sent to jail. The owner and other accused were still absconding when we checked on 19 October 2026. A district probe committee headed by Additional District Magistrate Tasnim Jahan was given five days to report. Reports differ on its size: five members in The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, seven in bdnews24 and The Business Standard. The committee visited the site on 18 October. Deputy Commissioner Mannan said the fire was suspected to have started from a kitchen stove; that is not yet an official finding.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M Rashiduzzaman Millat asked officials to keep searching for the missing and directed the Bangladesh Tourism Board to send a team to help affected tourists, The Daily Star reported. We found no report of compensation for the families up to 19 October 2026.

Why this matters

The Daily Star reported on 19 October that no hotel or resort along the 80 km Marine Drive has formal approval, though many have been built, and that eco-resorts built with timber and bamboo are common there. bdnews24 reported that one FSCD inspector covers 500 to 600 commercial establishments across the district, and that nearly 400 reportedly run without a valid fire licence. A notice was served on this resort four months before the fire, and nothing more happened.

The pattern is familiar in India too. In the Malviya Nagar guest house fire in Delhi, 23 people died in a building with one way in and out. In Rajkot, the TRP Game Zone fire spread through a temporary structure that had no fire NOC. Wood, bamboo, thatch and cloth burn fast, and one staircase next to a kitchen leaves guests on upper floors with no safe way down.

Lessons for Indian resorts, homestays and travellers

• Look for the second way out as soon as you check in. Many beach cottages in Goa, hill homestays and eco-resorts in Kerala are built of wood, some with a single staircase. If the only stairs pass the kitchen or reception, ask for a ground-floor room.
• Know how to move through smoke. In building fires, smoke often overcomes people before the flames reach them. Our guide on escaping a smoke-filled room explains how to stay low and test doors.
• Keep the kitchen away from the only exit. Owners should never put a gas stove or tandoor beside the staircase or main door of a wooden building. The basics in our kitchen fire safety rules apply to resort kitchens too.
• Owners must not ignore a fire notice. Get a fire NOC, fit smoke detectors and extinguishers, train staff to wake every room, and keep a night-duty person on each floor.
• Do not sleep behind locked or grilled windows in a timber building. A window you can open from inside, or a balcony, is a way out.

What is still not known

The cause has not been officially found; the kitchen stove is only the suspected starting point. The identities of four victims, and whether an eleventh person was inside, depend on DNA results. The probe committee’s report, the charges the owners will face and any compensation are awaited. We will update this page when official findings are published.