In 2013, a commercial complex near Dhaka housing five garment factories collapsed, killing 1,135 people, Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster. In 2012, 112 workers died in a fire at a factory just outside the capital.
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“At night the fire spread to other floors where huge amounts of chemicals and other flammable items were stored for use in packaging”, Bhoumik told Reuters from the site by phone.
Local administrator SA Alam said six more bodies were recovered on Sunday evening, while two others were found overnight as firefighters cleared the debris at the packaging factory in the Tongi industrial area outside the capital, Dhaka.
The flames in the factory were not doused completely. “We will remove the debris keeping the drums untouched”, the army official said.
Many fear the death toll could rise further as the search continues and a few people remain missing after the blaze caused a partial collapse of the factory building. But he could not be reached by telephone to answer further questions on Monday.
Mr Mikail Shipar, government secretary with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, said the government was now going to investigate safety at all of the hundreds of factories in the Tongi industrial zone.
“A murder case was filed by relatives of a dead worker against eight people, including the owner and his wife”, Tongi police chief Firoz Talukdar told AFP.
Bangladesh factory inspector general Syed Ahmed said an investigation would occur into the cause of Saturday’s accident.
Factory owner Tampaco Foils packages various items for several worldwide brands, including Nestle and British American Tobacco.
The tragedy also sparked demands for foreign companies sourcing clothing from Bangladesh to take greater responsibility for the safety of their workers.
A spokesman for Bangladeshi food giant Pran, also a customer of Tampaco’s, said the factory used to supply it with flexible packaging materials for snacks and confectioneries, but that it did not package finished products for them.
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Those two disasters prompted Bangladesh’s government, global brands and the United Nations to work together to try to improve safety standards in the South Asian country’s factories.
