Tragic Clothing Factory Blaze in the South Asian nation Has Taken a Minimum of 16 Victims
A minimum of 16 people have perished after a huge fire started at a clothing factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services cautioning that the death toll could rise.
Sixteen bodies have been found but were burned unrecognizable, the firefighters said.
Heartbroken relatives gathered outside the four-storey factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on that day in search of their family members still not found.
The inferno, which broke out at the factory around noon, was put out after multiple hours. But an neighboring chemical warehouse kept burning, authorities reported.
Up until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been completely doused, news sources said.
Fire service officials have not established which of the two buildings was the origin point.
Per bystanders, the chemical warehouse stored chemical bleaching agents, plastic materials and industrial peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Polymer products also emits toxic fumes when burned.
Law enforcement and armed forces are still searching for the operators of the factory and the warehouse, fire service director the fire service official briefed the media.
An probe on whether the warehouse was operating legally is also ongoing, he mentioned.
Weeping family members gathered outside the charred buildings, many of them holding photographs of their missing relatives.
Included in the crowd is a man searching desperately for his daughter, his loved one.
"When I heard about the fire, I hurried to the scene. But I still haven't found her... I just want my loved one back," he expressed to reporters.
The catastrophic occurrence has once again highlighted the security issues facing Bangladesh's clothing sector, which employs numerous of workers and is a major provider of foreign revenue for the country.