13 killed in Bangladesh factory blaze

Police and fire officers believe the blaze started when gas cylinders exploded in the factory’s boiler room, then raced through the four-storey Nasim Plastic factory in minutes.

“We’ve recovered 13 bodies,” local police chief Mohammad Jashimuddin told AFP, adding the fire was brought under control in around two hours and that the factory floors had been thoroughly searched.

“Three people were critically burnt and they were shifted to a hospital,” he added.

A fire official said those who died were plastic factory workers who were burnt or suffocated after they were trapped on the upper floors.

“It was a big fire, which was originated in the boiler room after loud explosions. Walls of the buildings collapsed due to the impact of the explosions,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

More than a dozen people suffered minor burn injuries, he added.

Factory worker Mohammad Khokon said 150-200 people usually work in the building, but the number on site was less than that because it was a weekend.

Dozens of friends and relatives of the missing workers crowded the factory site in Dhaka’s northern Mirpur suburb as fire fighters sifted through the charred remains of the building.

“I called my friend Belal after I saw the fire. His phone rang but he did not respond,” Mohammad Masud told AFP.

The fire also spread to a nearby four-storey garment factory, but the plant was closed for the day.

Fires are common in impoverished Bangladesh’s factories, which often have poor safety standards and lack fire-fighting tools. -AFP