A fire broke out at a warehouse of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) in Tejgaon area of the capital on early Wednesday, damaging 20 tonnes of soybean oil and 10 tonnes of chickpeas.

The exact cause of the fire has not been identified yet. The TCB, the state-run corporation, formed a three-member committee to investigate the fire incident. It was asked to submit its report within the next seven days.

The TCB sells soybean oil, sugar, lentil and other products at subsidised prices to one crore households every month to support people under tremendous price pressure. It also sells products during Ramadan.

Ahead of Ramadan, the government is procuring a huge quantity of soybean oil and other products for the TCB to sell at reduced prices during Ramadan.

Currently, the state-owned agency is selling soybean oil at Tk 110 per litre, sugar at Tk 60 per kg, and lentils at Tk 70 per kg.

Fire Service Control Room Duty Officer Ershad Hossain said they received information about the fire in the TCB warehouse at 11:54 pm on Tuesday. The first unit of the fire service reached the spot at 12:03 am.

A total of three firefighting units rushed to the spot and doused the flames around 12.24 am on Wednesday, he added.