Devastating Clothing Factory Blaze in the South Asian nation Has Taken a Minimum of 16 Victims
A minimum of 16 people have died after a huge fire broke out at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the fatality count could rise.
A total of sixteen bodies have been found but were charred impossible to identify, the fire service stated.
Distraught relatives gathered outside the multi-story factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on Tuesday in search of their loved ones still not found.
The fire, which broke out at the factory around midday, was extinguished after three hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse continued to burn, officials reported.
Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been completely doused, news sources reported.
Fire department authorities have not established which of the two buildings was the origin point.
Per bystanders, the chemical warehouse stored bleaching powder, plastic materials and chemical peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Plastic also releases hazardous smoke when combusted.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the owners of the factory and the warehouse, fire service director Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury informed reporters.
An investigation on whether the warehouse was functioning with proper authorization is also currently underway, he added.
Tearful family members gathered outside the charred buildings, many of them holding photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Included in the crowd is a man seeking urgently for his daughter, his family member.
"When I heard about the fire, I came running. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my child back," he told journalists.
The catastrophic occurrence has once again highlighted the safety concerns affecting Bangladesh's apparel manufacturing, which provides jobs for numerous of workers and is a major source of foreign revenue for the South Asian economy.