AFP claims that the fire was not fully extinguished after 24 hours. “Once the fire is under control, we will start searching for bodies and launch a rescue operation,” a firefighter’s spokesman told her that only then would it be possible to confirm the death toll. According to firefighters’ first estimate, the fire apparently began at a place where highly flammable substances, including plastics, were stored.
–
At least 26 people were injured who could not get out of the building and jump out of the windows. Their number was stated by Debasich Bardhan from the fire service and civil protection, but according to other sources, more than thirty were injured.
–
Police initially reported three dead, but began to increase rapidly as firefighters reached higher floors.
–
Juice factory fire near Dhaka
Photo: Mohammad Ponir Hossain, Reuters
Authorities do not yet know exactly how many people were inside or how many people are missing. One of the employees who managed to get out said that when the fire started, there were dozens of people inside. “On the third floor, the entrances to both stairs were closed. One colleague told me that there were 48 people, I don’t know what happened to them, “said an employee quoted by Al Jazeera. Another said that he and other colleagues had escaped from the flames to the roof, from where they were helped by firefighters. They could not get out through the entrance, it was closed.
–
During the night at the factory, there were clashes between the police and relatives of employees, who waited in vain for any news about their loved ones.
–
The AP recalled that Bangladesh has a tragic record of similar incidents. In 2019, a fire in the old and densely populated part of Dhaka killed 67 people, and later that year the fire engulfed the commercial building and killed 25 people. In the fire of a textile factory on the outskirts of Dhaka in 2012, 112 people died.
—
