Deadly Apparel Factory Inferno in Bangladesh Claims a Minimum of 16 Lives
No fewer than 16 individuals have died after a huge fire erupted at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the fatality count could rise.
A total of sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were incinerated unrecognizable, the firefighters said.
Grief-stricken relatives converged outside the four-storey factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on that day in seeking their loved ones still missing.
The fire, which erupted at the factory around midday, was extinguished after several hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse remained ablaze, officials said.
Up until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) yesterday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been entirely put out, media reports indicated.
Fire department authorities have not ascertained which of the two buildings ignited initially.
Per eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse stored industrial bleaches, synthetic polymers and industrial peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Plastic also emits poisonous gases when combusted.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still trying to locate the proprietors of the factory and the warehouse, fire department chief the fire service official informed journalists.
An investigation on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also in progress, he mentioned.
Weeping family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them clutching photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Included in the crowd is a man searching desperately for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I heard about the fire, I came running. But I still haven't found her... I just want my daughter back," he expressed to journalists.
The tragic incident has yet again emphasized the safety concerns affecting Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which engages numerous of workers and is a crucial source of export earnings for the South Asian economy.
