Factory Fire In Bangladesh Kills At Least 6 People

A deadly fire killed at least six workers while huge properties were gutted in a multi-story building in the old part of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on Monday, according to official sources.

"We have recovered six bodies from inside the building as our team doused the blaze nearly after five hours of hectic efforts," an officer of the headquarters of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense told Anadolu Agency.

According to eyewitnesses and relatives, eight workers were sleeping on the second floor of the building after their night duty during the devastating fire.

"One of them was my brother Bilal Hossain who was a security guard here. Since the fire, I could not contact him as his mobile phone is found switched off," Mohammad Abdullah, Bilal's brother, told Anadolu Agency.

He added that out of eight workers, only one managed to come out of the site. "I fear that all of the seven, including my brother have been burnt alive."

Eyewitnesses and fire service officers said the fire took place at around 12 p.m. local time (0600GMT) Monday and rapidly spread through the whole building in Old Dhaka's Chawkbazar area.

"I was sitting on a chair in front of the building and suddenly saw the fire as it flared up so fast, reaching onto the top floor," a security guard of the three-story building told Anadolu Agency.

He added that there was a restaurant on the ground floor of the building while a plastic factory and a warehouse of plastic raw materials were on the other two floors.

The field investigation also found that on the ground floor of the building there was a big shoe factory alongside the restaurant.

All were found gutted as the deadly fire captured everything until it was controlled by 10 units of fire service and local volunteers.

During the rescue operation, some members of the fire service were also injured.

Illegal plastic factories and flammable settlements

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Md. Kudrat-E-Khuda, the deputy commissioner of police in Old Dhaka's Lalbag Division, said almost all area was congested with many illegal plastic factories and other flammable settlements, including polythene and shoe factories.

"Some concerned bodies like the City Corporation, police, and government factory inspection division are in combination to check the issue," Khuda said.

Stressing the need for a permanent solution to the problem, he noted that all concerned authorities should take a combined and conducive plan and drive to immediately remove all illegal factories from this crowded part of the city.

"We do not see any combined drives of the authorities," Mohammad Habib, a resident of the area, told Anadolu Agency.

Frequent fires

According to analysts, due to weak management and congested structures in the South Asian country of nearly 165 million, deadly fires are frequent.

At least 52 workers at a food processing factory were killed and 35 injured in a fire in the industry-hub district of Narayanganj, the eastern city closest to Dhaka on July 8, 2021.

At least 70 people were killed in a massive blaze that engulfed several multi-story buildings in the old part of Dhaka in 2019. Another fire killed 123 in 2010 in the same area.

In March 2019, a fire killed at least 25 in the upscale Banani area and wounded dozens.

Fire in slums is also very common in Bangladesh. In June, a blaze gutted more than 500 shanties in Dhaka.

Rohingya refugee camps located in the southern district of Cox's Bazar have also been affected, including a major fire on March 22, 2021, that killed at least 15 and gutted more than 10,000 shanties along with a camp-based Turkish field hospital. -