Thick, white smoke still choked the air over Dhaka’s Mirpur area on Wednesday, a day after a fire tore through a chemical warehouse and an adjoining garment factory, killing at least 16 workers trapped inside a building that had its rooftop door locked.
“Our expert team, wearing chemical suits, opened the main gate of the chemical warehouse this morning, but could not enter. There is a large amount of thick white smoke inside, which is highly toxic,” PTI quoted fire service assistant director Kazi Nazmuzzaman as saying. “It might take a long time to bring the situation under control.”
Authorities confirmed that the warehouse had been operating without permission, another illegal depot hiding in plain sight in one of the most crowded parts of the capital.
Fire officials said the blaze began at the Shah Alam Chemical Warehouse before spreading to the adjoining four-storey Anwar Fashion Garments Factory in the Rupnagar area.
By the time firefighters reached, the smoke had already done its damage. “The victims could not escape because the roof door was locked,” Reuters quoted fire service official Talha Bin Jashim. “Most of them died from inhaling toxic gas, rather than burns.”
Twelve firefighting teams brought the garment factory fire under control within hours, but the chemical godown remained a death trap. “There’s still smoke because of the stored chemicals, and the toxic fumes are making it difficult to bring the fire under control,” Jashim said.
Fire service operations director Lt Col Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury said firefighters had deployed LUF 60 robots to fight the flames and warned that the fumes were still dangerous.
“A search operation will begin once the fire is fully contained,” he said, urging onlookers to stay away from the site.
Army and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel joined the firefighting efforts, while forensic teams collected evidence from the debris.
Fire service and civil defence director general Brig Gen Muhammad Jahed Kamal called for public outrage to match the tragedy.
“Raise your voice against the establishment of illegal chemical warehouses,” he said. “A social movement is needed to prevent such tragedies.”
Interim chief adviser Muhammad Yunus expressed grief, saying, “This loss of innocent lives in such a tragic accident is deeply painful and heartbreaking. We stand beside the affected families in this time of grief.”
Even as the fire cooled, its toxic aftermath spread through Mirpur. Workers at nearby factories fell ill from the fumes. Many factories were forced to close for the day.
“We came to the factory around 8:00 am and worked until about 10:00 am. After that, the authorities shut the factory for today after receiving information that workers at the nearby Rising Fashion factory had fallen sick from inhaling toxic fumes,” said a 25-year-old worker from K-Tex Industries.