Devastating Clothing Factory Inferno in the South Asian nation Has Taken no Fewer than 16 Victims
A minimum of 16 individuals have perished after a massive fire erupted at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services warning that the death toll could rise.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered but were incinerated beyond recognition, the fire service said.
Heartbroken relatives converged outside the four-level factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on that day in looking for their family members still unaccounted for.
The fire, which broke out at the factory around midday, was extinguished after several hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse kept burning, officials reported.
Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been completely doused, journalistic accounts said.
Fire department authorities have not determined which of the two buildings ignited initially.
Based on bystanders, the chemical warehouse stored industrial bleaches, synthetic polymers and hydrogen peroxide, all of which can intensify fires. Synthetic materials also produces toxic fumes when combusted.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still attempting to find the owners of the factory and the warehouse, fire service director the fire service official briefed reporters.
An inquiry on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also currently underway, he noted.
Weeping 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, his loved one.
"When I heard about the fire, I hurried to the scene. But I still have been unable to find her... I just want my loved one back," he stated to reporters.
The catastrophic occurrence has yet again emphasized the hazardous conditions facing Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which employs millions of workers and is a crucial source of foreign revenue for the South Asian economy.