News Desk :
A massive fire tore through a food processing factory killing at least 52 people trapped by flames that forced many workers to leap for their lives from upper floors, police said Friday.
The fire broke out at the five-story Hashem Foods and Beverage factory in Rupganj, an industrial area outside Dhaka, on Thursday afternoon, sending huge clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky, reports news agencies.
Police initially gave a toll of three dead but it rose dramatically as firefighters reached the upper floors and started bringing out dozens of bodies of trapped workers on Friday afternoon after the fire was extinguished.
“So far 52 bodies have been recovered, but the top two floors of the factory have yet to be searched,” said Debasish Bardhan, Deputy Director of the Fire Service and Civil Defense.
He said the main exit of the factory was locked from the inside and many of those who died were trapped.
The charred victims were piled in a fleet of ambulances to take them to mortuaries amid anguished shouts and tears from people watching in the streets.
Weeping family members of missing workers also waited anxiously for news of loved ones outside the charred site.
Earlier, family members clashed with police as they waited overnight without any word of the fate of their loved ones.
Besides, at least 26 suffered injuries as many workers jumped from the upper floors of the factory. Besides, firefighters rescued 25 people from the roof of the factory that made noodles fruit juices and candy.
But information about how many people were in the factory and how many were missing was not immediately available.
Locals said the fire broke out at the ground floor of the six-storey building around 5:00pm Thursday. Immediately after the incident, two workers, Swapna Rani, 44, and Mina Akhter, 34, jumped from the building and died on the spot. Later, another worker, Mursalin, 28, who jumped from the third floor, succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) around 11:00pm.
Around 7,000 workers work at the factory, but around 1000-1200 workers would work in the building that caught fire, said Abdul Jalil and Abu Samad, operators at the factory.
Dinu Moni Sharma, head of the Dhaka fire department, said the fire took off because highly flammable chemicals and plastics had been stockpiled inside.
Mohammad Saiful, a factory worker who escaped, said dozens of people were
inside when the blaze erupted.
“On the third floor, gates on both stairwells were closed. Other colleagues are saying there were 48 people inside. I don’t know what happened to them,” he said.
Mamun, another worker, said he and 13 other workers ran to the roof after the fire broke out on the ground floor and black smoke quickly choked the whole factory.
“Firefighters brought us down by using rope,” he told reporters.
Workers said there is a vermicelli (semai) factory at a section of the 4th floor, a carton factory on the 5th floor of the building. There are factories of liquid lollipops and liquid chocolates in the 3rd floor, organic beverages (juice, lassi) on the 2nd floor, toast biscuits and beverages on the first floor and boxes and polythene factories on the ground floor,
“The factory that caught fire Thursday was subsidiary of Sajeeb Group, a Bangladeshi company that produces juice under Pakistan’s Lahore-based Shezan International Ltd.,” said Kazi Abdur Rahman, the group’s senior general manager for export.
According to the group’s website, the company exports its products to a number of countries including Australia, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Bhutan, Nepal and nations in the Middle East and Africa.
Rahman told The Associated Press by phone that the company is fully compliant with international standards, but he was not certain whether the exit of the factory was locked.
According to Bangladesh’s factory laws, a factory cannot lock its exit when workers are inside during production hours.
“We are a reputed company; we maintain rules,” he said. “What happened today is very sad. We regret it.”
Meanwhile, the devastating fire that broke out at Hashem Foods and Beverages factory was doused after 21 hours.
Fifteen units of Fire Service and Civil Defence brought the fire under control at 2.30 pm on Friday.
At around 1.30 pm on Friday, the fire service personnel brought out the bodies of 49 people one by one from inside the factory.
Fire service sources said the bodies were burned in such a way that it was not possible to identify them without DNA tests.
The bodies were brought to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue one by one in three ambulances and two fire service vehicles for DNA testing.
The last ambulance reached DMCH around 3:15 pm on Friday.
The bodies will be handed over to relatives from the morgue of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Most of the missing are child workers
Shanta Moni, a 12-year-old child, enrolled as a labourer at the factory on Wednesday to help her family. The fire broke out on the next day and now she is missing.
Shanta’s mother Shimu said she sent lunch for her daughter at the factory.
Like Shanta, many other labourers are still missing.
The missing are – Shanta, 12, Munna 14, Shahana, 15, Nazmul, 15, Ripon, 17, Rahima, 35, Amrita, 19, Takia, 14, Himu, 16, Sifia, 30, Amena, 17, Mahmud, 15, Taslima, 17, Kompa, 16, Shefali, 20 and Ismail, 18, according to the relatives.
UNB adds: Fire Service and Civil Defense headquarters on Friday formed a 5-member committee to investigate the factory fire at Rupganj, Narayanganj .
Deputy assistant director of Fire Service Headquarters Shajahan Shikder confirmed the information to UNB.
“The committee has been asked to submit a report within 7 working days,” he said.
The committee will consist of Director(Line and Maintenance) Lt Colonel Jillur Rahman, Deputy Director Nur Hasan Ahmad, Assistant Director Moniruzzaman, Deputy Assistant Director Tanharul Islam and Inspector Md Shah Alam.
