Bangladesh: Deadly fire sweeps through factory outside Dhaka

At least 10 people have been killed in a fire at a factory outside Bangladesh‘s capital Dhaka, the second deadly factory fire in the area in less than a week, officials have said.

The fire broke out on Sunday evening in the Luxury Fan Factory in the Gazipur area. The bodies of 10 people were recovered after firefighters brought the blaze under control, said fire official Mamunur Rashid.

He said several people were injured but provided no exact figures.

Authorities were searching for more possible casualties, fire service spokesman Zillur Rahman told the AFP news agency.

It was not immediately clear how many workers were inside the factory when the fire began or what caused the blaze.

Such fires, many of them occurring in unregulated factories, are common in Bangladesh, which is a major manufacturing hub.

Fire disasters have regularly hit Bangladesh’s major cities, killing hundreds of people in recent years.
Critics have blamed lax regulations and poor enforcement for the deadly blazes.

On Wednesday, a fire in a plastic factory near Dhaka killed at least 15 people.

In February this year, a blaze in a historic Mughal building in an old part of Dhaka had killed at least 70 people and injured dozens.

A month later, 26 people were killed after a fire broke out in a high-rise office building in Dhaka, leading to the arrest of two owners for negligence and violations of the national building code.

A June 2010 fire in the nearby neighbourhood of Nimtoli, one of the most densely populated districts of the capital, killed 123 people.

In November 2012, a fire swept through a nine-storey garment factory near Dhaka killing 111 workers. An investigation found it was caused by sabotage and that managers at the plant had prevented the victims from escaping.

Authorities are still carrying out a drive to close down illegal chemical stores and warehouses in apartment buildings, launched after February’s disaster in the old city.