Devastating Clothing Factory Fire in Bangladesh Claims no Fewer than 16 Lives
No fewer than 16 people have perished after a huge fire started at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the number of victims could rise.
A total of sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were charred unrecognizable, the firefighters stated.
Grief-stricken relatives assembled outside the multi-story factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on Tuesday in looking for their dear ones still not found.
The fire, which broke out at the factory around lunchtime, was put out after three hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse kept burning, authorities reported.
Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, media reports said.
Fire department authorities have not determined which of the two buildings was the origin point.
According to witnesses, the chemical warehouse contained chemical bleaching agents, synthetic polymers and chemical peroxide, all of which can worsen fires. Plastic also produces poisonous gases when burned.
Police and military officers are still attempting to find the owners of the factory and the warehouse, fire service director Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury informed the media.
An probe on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also in progress, he mentioned.
Crying family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them holding photographs of their lost relatives.
Among them is a man looking frantically for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I heard about the fire, I came running. But I still have been unable to find her... I just want my daughter back," he expressed to reporters.
The catastrophic occurrence has yet again highlighted the hazardous conditions plaguing Bangladesh's clothing sector, which engages countless of workers and is a crucial provider of economic income for the South Asian economy.
