Narayanganj factory fire death toll rises to 52

The fire service and civil defence have recovered 49 more bodies from the burnt juice factory of Hashem Foods Ltd at Rupganj in Narayanganj until Friday, raising the death toll to 52.

Meanwhile, on Friday evening, angry survivors of the factory fire and relatives, family members of the victims locked in clashes with police and Ansar members in Rupganj.

The enraged workers also barricaded the Dhaka-Sylhet highway in the morning for the delay in rescue effort while they searched the factory for several dozens of missing people.

The agitated workers attacked on Ansar camp and looted three shotguns, which were later recovered by the Rapid Action Battalion.

The workers and family members broke into tears as fire-fighters started to bring out charred bodies of workers from the factory in the afternoon.

‘We have recovered 49 bodies from the third floor of the six-storey building between 12:30pm and 1:45pm on Friday and three more died on Thursday evening immediately after the fire had broken out,’ fire service and civil defence assistant director Abdul Halim told New Age.

He said that they were now conducting searches on the fourth and fifth floors of the building.

The recovered bodies were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Abdul Halim said that the bodies were charred beyond recognition and were hard to identify.

President M Abdul Hamid expressed deep shock and sorrow at the fatal factory fire in Narayanganj.

He wished early recovery of the people injured in the blaze.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also expressed deep shock and sorrow over the casualties from the fire in the factory which is at Rupganj in Narayanganj.

In a condolence message, the prime minister prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls and conveyed deep sympathy to the bereaved families.

At a spot briefing, fire service director of operations and maintenance Debashish Bardhan said that the six-storey building had only two exits and there were flammable products stored in the building.

Debashish said that they found the exit gate of the third floor locked for which the trapped workers could not come out of the floor and died.

‘If the gate was not locked, so many people would not have died in the fire,’ he said.

Fire Service officials said that the flame was massive at exit point and people in the second and third floors could not get out using the exit.

New Age correspondent in Narayanganj reported that 25 people were rescued with fire service ladders and some got injured as they jumped from the second or the third floor to escape the flame.

Local administration has prepared a list of names and details of at least 38 missing people.

Searches were conducted in the fourth and fifth floors of the building till evening, but no more bodies were found there.   

‘Though the fire was brought under control at about 12:35am on Friday, fire-fighters are engaged to put out the flame on the fire floor of the building as pocket fires continued to break out,’ said Abdullah Al Arefin, deputy assistant director of the fire service in Narayanganj.

18 fire-fighter units had been working at the spot.

Arefin said, ‘The exact number of casualties cannot be confirmed yet as more bodies might be recovered from the debris.’

The fire occurred at the factory at about 5:00pm on Thursday and the fire-fighters were now working to put out the sporadic pocket fires on the top floor of the factory.

The factory’s administration in-charge Salahuddin Mia said that about 400 workers had been working on five floors of the building.

All of them were doing overtime duty, he said.

Fire Service has formed a five-member probe committee to prove the fire incident.

Fire Service director for operations Lieutenant Colonel Zillur Rahman will lead the committee, said a press release of the force on Friday evening.

The district administration, meanwhile, formed another five-member committee led by the district additional deputy commissioner Mohammad Shamim Byapari, district administration officials said.

Shamim Byapari said that they would give Tk 25,000 to the family of each deceased and Tk 10,000 to each injured worker.

Immediately after the incident, two bodies were recovered from the building. The deceased were identified as factory workers Mina Akhter, 33, and Shapna Rani, 45.

Later, another worker, Mursalin, 28, who jumped from the third floor, died from his injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital at about 11:00pm.

Ten of the injured were sent to the DMCH while 16 were admitted to US Bangla Medical College and Hospital at Rupganj, according to the authorities of the hospitals.

Md Shahadat Hossain, a duty doctor of the US Bangla Medical College, confirmed the deaths of two workers.

Eight of the injured admitted to the DMCH were identified as Nahid, 23, Monjurul Islam, 25, Mohasin Hossain, 32, Abu Bakar Siddique, 40, Amena Begum, 32, Fatema Akhter, 23, Mohasin, 27 and Mazeda, 28.

Bachchu Mia, inspector in-charge of the DMCH police camp, said three of the injured were shifted to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute of the DMCH as they were having breathing problems.

Abu Bakar Siddique, one of the injured, said, ‘We sustained injuries as we jumped in a hurry out of panic to get out of the building.’

The number of injured and death may rise, he said.

Meanwhile, many people have gathered at the morgue of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday afternoon in a desperate search for their missing family members who were working in juice factory of Hashem Foods Ltd.

The family members were seen carrying images and other identification documents of the missing people.

Narayanganj district senior assistant secretary Nurunnabi said that the bodies would almost impossible to identify since those are charred.

The Criminal Investigation Department of police forensic teams has started collecting DNA samples from the dead bodies, said CID’s assistant DNS analyst Ashraful Alam.

Kabir Hossain’s teenage son Rakib Hasan and nephew Hasnain were working in the third floor of the building and remained missing since the fire.

Kabir and other family members have been shuttling between hospitals and the factory since Thursday evening.

He said that police have informed that the bodies were recovered from third floor of the building where Rakib and Hasnain were working.

The family came to DMCH in search of the missing teenagers and CID has collected their DNA samples.

DMCH morgue sources said that 26 samples were collected against 19 dead bodies by the CID.

President M Abdul Hamid expressed deep shock and sorrow at the fatal factory fire in Narayanganj. He wished early recovery of the people injured in the blaze.

Rahima Begum, his son Razib Hossain and daughter-in-law Amena Begum have been working in the factory for few years.

Rahima and Razib work at the ground floor while Amena was on the third floor.

Mother and son managed to come out of the factory soon after the fire broke out, but Amena got trapped inside.

Since then, there has been no trace of Amena, said Rahima.

‘We tried to talk to her on the cellphone, but she could not receive it. The cellphone was active till 7:30pm Thursday evening, but it was found switched off afterwards,’ said Rahima.

The family managed to talk to an official named Mahbub on the third floor a few minutes after the flame spread.

He only managed to tell that they were trapped inside and was running out of oxygen, said Rahima.

All the victims blamed the factory authorities for not letting workers out in time as the gate was kept locked.

The factory is used for manufacturing juice, chocolates, vermicelli, noodles and other food items.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/143234/narayanganj-factory-fire-death-toll-rises-to-52