They said the fire triggered by the blast spread quickly because flammable chemicals were stored at the factory building which collapsed like a sandwich just in several minutes.
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Senior firefighting official Anis Mahmud said his workers toiled through the night to douse the blaze but the structure was still too risky to enter properly to search through the debris.
The food and cigarette packaging firm supplies brands including British American Tobacco and Nestle Bangladesh, according to its website.
As rescue efforts continued and strong winds stoked the smoke and flames, Hoque said firefighters were trying to prevent any further explosions, adding that the building could collapse.
Around 100 people were working at the factory on Saturday when the fire caused by an explosion in the boiler room tore through the four-storey structure on the outskirts on the capital Dhaka. “I was working inside the office room when I heard an explosion and felt a tremor”.
Survivors said the explosion of the boiler sparked the blaze while the ceilings of the building fall down on the laborers as they were inside. “I nearly became unconscious but I forced myself to go out with the help of my phone’s flashlight”.
Officials said 19 bodies are now in the Tongi hospital, five at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and two more at the Adhunik Medical College Hospital at Dhaka’s Uttara.
Scores of the injured people were rushed to different hospitals in Dhaka and Tongi where many were said to be in critical condition. The head of Bangladesh’s factory inspection department said a committee had been set up to investigate the fire.
The blaze is the latest in a series of deadly accidents to hit impoverished Bangladesh, whose $27-billion garment industry is the world’s second largest behind China’s. In 2013, a commercial complex near Dhaka housing five garment factories collapsed, killing 1,135 people, Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster. At least 13 people died in a fire at a plastics factory Dhaka previous year.
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Fire fighters work to put out the fire at a packaging factory in Tongi industy area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh.
