Devastating Clothing Factory Blaze in the South Asian nation Takes at Least 16 Fatalities
A minimum of 16 people have perished after a huge fire broke out at a clothing factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the number of victims could climb.
A total of sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were burned impossible to identify, the fire service reported.
Distraught relatives converged outside the multi-story factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Tuesday in looking for their family members still unaccounted for.
The inferno, which broke out at the factory around midday, was brought under control after several hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse remained ablaze, authorities reported.
Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, journalistic accounts indicated.
Fire service officials have not determined which of the two buildings ignited initially.
Based on eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse housed industrial bleaches, plastic materials and chemical peroxide, all of which can worsen fires. Plastic also releases hazardous smoke when burned.
Police and military officers are still searching for the proprietors of the factory and the warehouse, fire service director the fire service official told reporters.
An probe on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also in progress, he mentioned.
Weeping family members waited outside the charred buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their lost relatives.
Present at the scene is a man looking frantically for his daughter, his family member.
"When I learned of the fire, I hurried to the scene. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my daughter back," he told reporters.
The devastating event has yet again emphasized the hazardous conditions plaguing Bangladesh's garment industry, which engages countless of workers and is a crucial provider of foreign revenue for the nation.
