Devastating Clothing Factory Inferno in the South Asian nation Claims no Fewer than 16 Victims
At least 16 individuals have died after a huge fire erupted at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with officials warning that the death toll could rise.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered but were charred unrecognizable, the firefighters reported.
Distraught relatives gathered outside the four-level factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka on Tuesday in looking for their loved ones still missing.
The inferno, which started at the factory around noon, was put out after several hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse kept burning, authorities said.
Up until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been entirely put out, media reports indicated.
Emergency responders have not ascertained which of the two buildings caught fire first.
Based on bystanders, the chemical warehouse contained industrial bleaches, plastic materials and hydrogen peroxide, all of which can intensify fires. Polymer products also produces poisonous gases when ignited.
Police and military officers are still attempting to find the owners of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the fire service official briefed the media.
An probe on whether the warehouse was functioning with proper authorization is also ongoing, he noted.
Weeping family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them holding photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.
Present at the scene is a man looking frantically 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 loved one back," he told journalists.
The catastrophic occurrence has another time underscored the security issues facing Bangladesh's clothing sector, which provides jobs for countless of workers and is a crucial source of foreign revenue for the nation.
