Dhaka, Sep. 20 (PTI): At least six workers, including a woman, were killed today when a fire ripped through a four- storey textile factory on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, the latest lethal industrial accident to hit the country.
The Ideal Textile factory in Charmuktarpur area in Munshiganj district was closed but some workers were inside when the fire erupted, apparently from its chemicals storage in the first-floor.
"Six bodies, one of them being a woman worker, have been recovered from the scene after the blaze was extinguished.
Searches inside are underway," a fire official told reporters.
The blaze has left the factory near the district town severely damaged, police said.
Four fire-fighting units from Munshiganj and Narayanganj were working at the scene to put out the blaze, said Md Joynal Abedin, in-charge of Muktarpur police outpost.
"A few other workers are still missing, so the death toll may rise. Renovations were going on the same floor, where welders were at work," Abedin was quoted as saying by bdnews24.
"A spark caused the fire at the chemical warehouse, which spread to other parts soon after," the police officer said.
The victims did not die from the fire rather suffocated from the fumes of the chemicals, the official added.
Police have detained four officials of the mill, including the general manager.
Bangladesh's garment sector is the the world's second biggest after China and has drew worldwide attention in the past due to frequent fire accidents.
The roughly USD 28-billion garment industry with more than 4,500 units generates about 80 per cent of Bangladesh's export earnings, employing some 4 million people, mostly women.
Fires are common in Bangladeshi textile factories, despite the government's efforts to improve the poor working conditions.
At least 25 people were killed and over 70 injured in a huge fire triggered by a boiler explosion at a packaging factory in Bangladesh in September, in one of the worst industrial accidents in the country since 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment complex collapsed, claiming more than 1,100 lives.
At least 13 people died in a fire at a plastics factory in Dhaka. In 2012, 112 workers died in a fire at a factory just outside the capital.
