Deadly Clothing Factory Blaze in the South Asian nation Has Taken no Fewer than 16 Victims
At least 16 persons have perished after a massive fire started at a clothing factory in Bangladesh, with authorities stating that the fatality count could climb.
Sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were burned impossible to identify, the firefighters reported.
Grief-stricken relatives converged outside the four-level factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on Tuesday in seeking their family members still not found.
The fire, which started at the factory around midday, was extinguished after three hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse remained ablaze, authorities said.
As late as 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, media reports reported.
Emergency responders have not established which of the two buildings caught fire first.
Per bystanders, the chemical warehouse contained industrial bleaches, plastic and chemical peroxide, all of which can intensify fires. Plastic also emits hazardous smoke when combusted.
Police and military officers are still attempting to find the operators of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the department director informed journalists.
An probe on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also ongoing, he added.
Tearful family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them clutching photographs of their lost relatives.
Included in the crowd is a man seeking urgently for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I learned of the fire, I rushed here. But I still haven't found her... I just want my child back," he stated to news media.
The catastrophic occurrence has once again emphasized the security issues facing Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which provides jobs for numerous of workers and is a major provider of export earnings for the country.
