Deadly Clothing Factory Inferno in Bangladesh Has Taken at Least 16 Victims
No fewer than 16 individuals have lost their lives after a huge fire started at a clothing factory in Bangladesh, with authorities cautioning that the number of victims could rise.
A total of sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were burned impossible to identify, the fire department stated.
Grief-stricken relatives assembled outside the four-storey factory in Mirpur, Dhaka on that day in seeking their family members still not found.
The fire, which started at the factory around noon, was extinguished after three hours. But an neighboring chemical warehouse remained ablaze, emergency services reported.
Up until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been completely doused, journalistic accounts reported.
Fire service officials have not determined which of the two buildings was the origin point.
Based on bystanders, the chemical warehouse contained bleaching powder, synthetic polymers and hydrogen peroxide, all of which can worsen fires. Synthetic materials also releases poisonous gases when burned.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still trying to locate the operators of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the department director briefed journalists.
An investigation on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also in progress, he added.
Crying family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Among them is a man seeking urgently for his daughter, his family member.
"When I heard about the fire, I rushed here. But I still haven't found her... I just want my loved one back," he expressed to journalists.
The catastrophic occurrence has yet again underscored the safety concerns affecting Bangladesh's garment industry, which provides jobs for millions of workers and is a major provider of foreign revenue for the country.
