Deadly Clothing Factory Blaze in the South Asian nation Takes a Minimum of 16 Lives
At least 16 people have died after a huge fire started at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the fatality count could increase.
16 bodies have been retrieved but were incinerated unrecognizable, the firefighters reported.
Distraught relatives converged outside the four-level factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on that day in seeking their loved ones still missing.
The blaze, which started at the factory around lunchtime, was extinguished after multiple hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse continued to burn, officials said.
Up until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) yesterday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been entirely put out, journalistic accounts indicated.
Fire service officials have not ascertained which of the two buildings caught fire first.
Per witnesses, the chemical warehouse contained industrial bleaches, plastic materials and industrial peroxide, all of which can worsen fires. Plastic also produces poisonous gases when combusted.
Security personnel are still trying to locate the operators of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the fire service official informed the media.
An investigation on whether the warehouse was functioning with proper authorization is also in progress, he added.
Weeping family members waited outside the fire-damaged buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Among them is a man searching desperately for his daughter, his loved one.
"When I heard about the fire, I rushed here. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my loved one back," he expressed to news media.
The catastrophic occurrence has once again highlighted the hazardous conditions facing Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which provides jobs for countless of workers and is a significant provider of foreign revenue for the country.
