Deadly Garment Factory Inferno in the South Asian nation Has Taken no Fewer than 16 Victims
At least 16 persons have died after a massive fire started at a clothing factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the number of victims could rise.
Sixteen bodies have been found but were charred impossible to identify, the firefighters said.
Distraught relatives assembled outside the four-storey factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on that day in seeking their loved ones still missing.
The blaze, which started at the factory around noon, was extinguished after several hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse remained ablaze, authorities said.
Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, media reports reported.
Emergency responders have not ascertained which of the two buildings was the origin point.
Per eyewitnesses, the chemical warehouse housed bleaching powder, plastic and chemical peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Plastic also emits toxic fumes when combusted.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the owners of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the fire service official told journalists.
An probe on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also ongoing, he noted.
Tearful family members waited outside the fire-damaged buildings, many of them holding photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Among them is a man seeking urgently for his daughter, his loved one.
"When I heard about the fire, I came running. But I still have been unable to find her... I just want my child back," he expressed to reporters.
The catastrophic occurrence has yet again underscored the security issues plaguing Bangladesh's clothing sector, which engages millions of workers and is a major provider of foreign revenue for the South Asian economy.
