Deadly Garment Factory Fire in Bangladesh Has Taken a Minimum of 16 Fatalities
No fewer than 16 persons have died after a enormous fire started at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with officials cautioning that the number of victims could rise.
16 bodies have been retrieved but were incinerated impossible to identify, the firefighters stated.
Heartbroken relatives assembled outside the four-level factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on that day in seeking their family members still missing.
The blaze, which broke out at the factory around noon, was extinguished after several hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse remained ablaze, emergency services said.
As late as 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, journalistic accounts reported.
Emergency responders have not determined which of the two buildings caught fire first.
According to eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse housed chemical bleaching agents, plastic materials and hydrogen peroxide, all of which can intensify fires. Plastic also releases hazardous smoke when ignited.
Security personnel are still attempting to find the owners of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury told the media.
An inquiry on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also currently underway, he added.
Weeping family members stood outside the burned buildings, many of them holding photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Included in the crowd is a man looking frantically for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I heard about the fire, I hurried to the scene. But I still haven't found her... I just want my child back," he stated to news media.
The tragic incident has another time highlighted the hazardous conditions affecting Bangladesh's garment industry, which employs millions of workers and is a major contributor to export earnings for the South Asian economy.