Tragic Apparel Factory Blaze in the South Asian nation Takes no Fewer than 16 Fatalities
No fewer than 16 persons have lost their lives after a massive fire erupted at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the death toll could climb.
16 bodies have been retrieved but were charred unrecognizable, the fire service said.
Distraught relatives converged outside the multi-story factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Tuesday in looking for their loved ones still unaccounted for.
The fire, which started at the factory around noon, was extinguished after three hours. But an neighboring chemical warehouse continued to burn, authorities confirmed.
As late as 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been completely doused, news sources said.
Fire service officials have not established which of the two buildings caught fire first.
According to witnesses, the chemical warehouse stored chemical bleaching agents, plastic and industrial peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Polymer products also releases poisonous gases when combusted.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the proprietors of the factory and the warehouse, fire department chief the department director briefed the media.
An investigation on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also ongoing, he noted.
Weeping family members stood outside the burned buildings, many of them holding photographs of their lost relatives.
Present at the scene is a man seeking urgently for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I heard about the fire, I came running. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my loved one back," he told reporters.
The catastrophic occurrence has another time emphasized the hazardous conditions facing Bangladesh's garment industry, which engages countless of workers and is a major provider of export earnings for the South Asian economy.
