Tragic Clothing Factory Fire in Bangladesh Claims a Minimum of 16 Victims
No fewer than 16 individuals have perished after a massive fire broke out at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services warning that the fatality count could climb.
16 bodies have been retrieved but were burned impossible to identify, the fire service reported.
Distraught relatives converged outside the four-level factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on that day in seeking their dear ones still unaccounted for.
The fire, which started at the factory around noon, was brought under control after multiple hours. But an nearby chemical warehouse kept burning, authorities said.
Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, journalistic accounts indicated.
Fire department authorities have not established which of the two buildings was the origin point.
According to eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse stored industrial bleaches, plastic and chemical peroxide, all of which can intensify fires. Synthetic materials also releases poisonous gases when ignited.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still trying to locate the operators of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the department director told the media.
An inquiry on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also ongoing, he noted.
Crying family members stood outside the burned buildings, many of them holding photographs of their missing relatives.
Among them is a man looking frantically for his daughter, his loved one.
"When I learned of the fire, I rushed here. But I still have been unable to find her... I just want my loved one back," he told news media.
The catastrophic occurrence has yet again underscored the hazardous conditions affecting Bangladesh's clothing sector, which provides jobs for numerous of workers and is a major provider of foreign revenue for the nation.
