DHAKA: At least 22 people have been killed and 70 injured, in a factory in Bangladesh as a huge fire triggered by a boiler explosion at the Tampaco Foils Limited factory, which supplies foreign and domestic brands.
Around 100 people were working when flames tore through the four-storey building in the industrial town of Tongi, just north of the capital Dhaka.
Police inspector Aminul Islam said .“We still have not controlled the blaze and we fear some workers are still trapped in the factory.”
Parvez Mia, a doctor at the Tongi government hospital, said at least 70 people were injured.“Most of them had burn injuries. We sent the critically injured victims to the hospitals in Dhaka,” he added.“Several of them are very critical.”
Police are still concerned other workers may still be trapped inside the factory.
The manufacturing plant produces and prints plastic packaging for potato chips and household goods such as mosquito coils.
According to an official from the Bangladesh factory inspection department a committee has been formed to investigate the fire.
Tahmidul Islam of Bangladesh’s industrial police unit said. Chemicals may have been stored on the ground floor of the factory. “What we have heard is that there were chemicals stored on the ground floor. As a result, the fire took no time to spread.”
Fires and other accidents in factories are common in Bangladesh. Reports say that the fire protection system is weak.
2013, incident is considered as the country’s worst industrial disaster in which more than 1,100 workers died in a building collapse.