The cause of the fire was unknown, although under investigation by Bangladesh Police. A number of Human Rights observers criticised the placement of barbed wire around the camp, arguing that it had prevented people[1]—"including especially vulnerable women and girls", said the IRC[2]—from fleeing the fire, and perhaps contributed to the death toll.[3][3] Jan Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, argued that "this tragic event could have been less disastrous had barbed wire fencing not been erected encircling the camps.