At least 52 people were killed and 20 injured after a huge fire raged through a juice-making factory in Bangladesh, officials said on Friday, the newest industrial accident during a country with a diary of poor working conditions.
The fire started late Thursday on the bottom floor of a six-story factory building in Narayanganj, southeast of Dhaka, and was still raging Friday evening as firefighters scrambled to regulate it.
Flames rose from the highest floors of the building, where many workers had jumped out from to flee, as a key exit out of the working areas was locked, said fire official Abdullah Al Arefin.
“Three people died from jumping off the building to flee the hearth and 49 charred bodies are recovered,” Mustain Billah, the administrator for the Narayanganj district, told Reuters by phone from the scene.
“Firefighters are struggling to regulate it, as chemicals and flammable materials were stored inside the building,” he added.
The explanation for the hearth isn’t yet known, but police official Abdullah Al Mamun told reporters that three police teams are dispatched to probe the incident and action would be taken against those liable for the hearth.
Dozens of disasters occur in Bangladesh annually thanks to poor fire and building safety standards. the newest incident is that the worst since August 2016, when quite 100 people fell ill within the southern Chittagong city after inhaling gas that leaked from a fertilizer factory.
Past accidents have mired the country’s robust textiles sector, which employs many people and contributes the foremost to Bangladesh’s economy.
Industry officials promised better safety standards after the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Dhaka that killed quite 1,000 workers and injured hundreds. But many factories still come short.
“We demand speedy trial and punishment of these liable for this tragic murder incident through a good investigation,” the nonprofit Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust said during a statement. It also sought compensation for impacted workers and a search into the explanation for the hearth, including reports of locked exits.
The factory is owned by the private firm Hashem Food and Beverage, a unit of Bangladesh’s multinational Sajeeb Group. Officials at both companies didn’t answer calls and emails seeking to discuss Friday.
Al Arefin said each building floor is about 35,000 square feet (3,250 square meters) but they were only accessible by two stairways, which many workers couldn’t get to because the fire had spread there. Some escaped to the roof from the steps and were rescued, but many couldn’t, as a door resulting in the roof was locked.
Dozens of relations protested outside the plant, demanding justice. But some, like Nazma Begum, were still trying to find those lost. “There is not any justice! Where is my son?” Begum cried out.
