Deadly Garment Factory Blaze in Bangladesh Claims at Least 16 Lives
No fewer than 16 people have lost their lives after a enormous fire erupted at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services warning that the death toll could increase.
A total of sixteen bodies have been recovered but were incinerated unrecognizable, the firefighters stated.
Distraught relatives assembled outside the four-level factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Tuesday in looking for their dear ones still unaccounted for.
The inferno, which broke out at the factory around noon, was extinguished after multiple hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse kept burning, officials said.
As late as 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) yesterday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, journalistic accounts said.
Emergency responders have not established which of the two buildings caught fire first.
Based on bystanders, the chemical warehouse stored chemical bleaching agents, plastic materials and chemical peroxide, all of which can worsen fires. Plastic also releases hazardous smoke when burned.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the proprietors of the factory and the warehouse, fire department chief the department director briefed journalists.
An probe on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also ongoing, he added.
Crying family members stood outside the burned buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their lost relatives.
Present at the scene is a man looking frantically 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 expressed to news media.
The catastrophic occurrence has yet again underscored the safety concerns plaguing Bangladesh's clothing sector, which engages numerous of workers and is a significant provider of export earnings for the South Asian economy.
