Devastating Clothing Factory Fire in the South Asian nation Has Taken a Minimum of 16 Fatalities
At least 16 people have perished after a enormous fire started at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services stating that the fatality count could climb.
A total of sixteen bodies have been found but were burned unrecognizable, the fire department reported.
Distraught relatives converged outside the multi-story factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on Tuesday in search of their dear ones still unaccounted for.
The blaze, which erupted at the factory around lunchtime, was put out after multiple hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse continued to burn, officials reported.
Up until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been completely doused, news sources indicated.
Fire service officials have not established which of the two buildings caught fire first.
Based on eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse housed industrial bleaches, plastic materials and hydrogen peroxide, all of which can intensify fires. Polymer products also releases poisonous gases when ignited.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the owners of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury briefed the media.
An investigation on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also ongoing, he mentioned.
Crying family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Among them is a man looking frantically for his daughter, his family member.
"When I was informed of the fire, I rushed here. But I still haven't found her... I just want my child back," he expressed to news media.
The catastrophic occurrence has another time emphasized the safety concerns plaguing Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which provides jobs for millions of workers and is a significant source of foreign revenue for the country.
