Tragic Garment Factory Inferno in the South Asian nation Has Taken at Least 16 Victims
A minimum of 16 persons have perished after a enormous fire broke out at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with authorities cautioning that the fatality count could rise.
A total of sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were burned impossible to identify, the firefighters stated.
Distraught relatives assembled outside the four-storey factory in Mirpur, Dhaka on Tuesday in looking for their loved ones still unaccounted for.
The fire, which broke out at the factory around noon, was extinguished after several hours. But an neighboring chemical warehouse remained ablaze, emergency services reported.
As late as 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been completely doused, media reports said.
Fire department authorities have not established which of the two buildings ignited initially.
According to eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse stored chemical bleaching agents, synthetic polymers and industrial peroxide, all of which can worsen fires. Plastic also emits poisonous gases when burned.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the operators of the factory and the warehouse, fire department chief the fire service official informed journalists.
An inquiry on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also ongoing, he noted.
Tearful family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them clutching photographs of their lost relatives.
Present at the scene is a man looking frantically for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I heard about the fire, I rushed here. But I still have been unable to find her... I just want my child back," he expressed to reporters.
The tragic incident has once again emphasized the hazardous conditions facing Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which engages numerous of workers and is a major contributor to economic income for the South Asian economy.
