At least 18 people were reported dead after fire broke out in a garment packaging factory in Bangladesh’s Tongi in Gazipur district, reports said.
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The explosion led to a fire in a factory of Tampaco Foils Ltd around 6 am.
Dozens suffered burns, with one person said to be in critical condition.
In the industrial zone of Tongi, 20 kilometres north of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.
“I am simultaneously feeling lucky and heartbroken”, he said, tears streaming down his face as he helped rush the many injured to hospital, blood staining his T-shirt.
Chemical storage may be to blame for fire’s rapid speed, Tahmidul Islam of the industrial police unit told Agence France-Presse.
Meanwhile, Riyad Ahmed, marketing executive of Tampaco Foils Limited, said that a large number of workers were present at the factory during the incident as they were in the process of taking the charges from the night shift labourers. “But the toll will go up as the fire is still not under control”, police inspector Sirajul Islam told the AFP news agency. “What we have heard is that there were chemicals stored on the ground floor”.
Fires and other accidents are common in the factories that make up the $27-billion garment industry in Bangladesh, the world´s second-biggest apparel exporter after China. In 2013, a commercial complex near Dhaka housing five garment factories collapsed, killing 1,135 people, Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster.
The Rana Plaza disaster led to global calls to improve factory safety in the country.
The two major accidents prompted Bangladesh’s government, global brands and the United Nations to work together for improving safety standards in the South Asian country’s factories.
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But thousands of local factories supplying the domestic market have done little to address safety concerns.
