Devastating Apparel Factory Fire in the South Asian nation Takes no Fewer than 16 Lives
A minimum of 16 individuals have died after a massive fire broke out at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with officials cautioning that the death toll could rise.
A total of sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were charred impossible to identify, the fire service said.
Distraught relatives converged outside the four-level factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Tuesday in search of their loved ones still missing.
The fire, which erupted at the factory around lunchtime, was extinguished after three hours. But an neighboring chemical warehouse kept burning, authorities confirmed.
Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) yesterday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been entirely put out, media reports reported.
Emergency responders have not determined which of the two buildings caught fire first.
Per eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse stored chemical bleaching agents, plastic and chemical peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Plastic also produces hazardous smoke when burned.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still trying to locate the proprietors of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the department director told reporters.
An probe on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also in progress, he noted.
Crying family members gathered outside the fire-damaged buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Present at the scene is a man looking frantically for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I was informed of the fire, I came running. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my daughter back," he told news media.
The devastating event has once again underscored the safety concerns affecting Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which provides jobs for countless of workers and is a crucial source of foreign revenue for the South Asian economy.
