Devastating Apparel Factory Inferno in the South Asian nation Takes a Minimum of 16 Victims
A minimum of 16 persons have died after a huge fire erupted at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with officials cautioning that the fatality count could increase.
16 bodies have been recovered but were charred unrecognizable, the fire service stated.
Grief-stricken relatives assembled outside the four-storey factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on that day in looking for their family members still not found.
The inferno, which erupted at the factory around lunchtime, was extinguished after multiple hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse continued to burn, authorities reported.
Up until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been entirely put out, media reports said.
Fire service officials have not determined which of the two buildings caught fire first.
Per witnesses, the chemical warehouse contained chemical bleaching agents, synthetic polymers and hydrogen peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Synthetic materials also releases poisonous gases when combusted.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the operators of the factory and the warehouse, fire service director Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury told journalists.
An investigation on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also in progress, he added.
Tearful family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them clutching photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Present at the scene is a man looking frantically for his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
"When I was informed of the fire, I came running. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my daughter back," he expressed to journalists.
The devastating event has another time highlighted the hazardous conditions plaguing Bangladesh's garment industry, which provides jobs for millions of workers and is a crucial contributor to foreign revenue for the nation.
