It is also the worst industrial accident in Bangladesh since the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza building outside Dhaka that killed over 1,100 workers, who were mainly employed in the garment industry.
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“The bodies of 10 people were kept in the hospital”, Md Parvez Mia, a residential doctor of 50-bed Tongi Government Hospital, was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.
Senior firefighting official Anis Mahmud said his workers toiled through the night to douse the blaze but the structure was still too unsafe to enter properly to search through the debris.
However, weak fire protection systems are common in factories in Bangladesh. “We need more excavators and trucks to clear debris”.
A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at a packaging factory near Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens, officials said. The fire occurred as workers prepared to swap shifts in the morning.
Islam said chemicals were allegedly stored on the ground floor.
Shipar added that an investigation would be carried out and if anyone was found guilty of negligence, action would be taken.
“The fire is still not under control”, police inspector Sirajul Islam told AFP. But building safety in other industries has attracted less scrutiny. “Survivors say workers were forced to go inside the building, even though a visible crack was forming”, as NPR’s Jim Zarroli reported earlier this year. “No one will be spared”. Western brands subsequently improved safety standards and inspections for suppliers, dramatically reducing incidents of fire and other accidents at export-orientated factories.
Factory safety is a major concern in Bangladesh, which has thousands of garment and packaging factories that supply products to global clothing chains like America’s Wal-Mart and Sweden’s H&M.
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Ms Khaleda Begum, the sister of a factory worker killed in the accident, said: “My brother Delwar Hossain told us last night he would take us to our home district of Sherpur”.
