24 killed, dozens injured in Bangladesh factory fire

At least 24 people have been killed and 50 injured after a fire engulfed a packaging factory north of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

The fire erupted due to a boiler explosion at the Tampako Packaging Factory in the industrial town of Tongi, 20km north of the capital before it spread into the storage area of the building through the night, emergency officials said.

Citing hospital officials, the paper said the bodies of 19 people were recovered from the building while five others succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment.

Fire officials said late on Saturday they had been unable to enter the building and search through the debris, amid fears that the death toll could rise further.

“We could not start search operations as it took until late into yesterday night to control the fire in the building,” Ajit Kumar Bhoumik, a senior official of the fire service said early on Sunday.

“At night the fire spread to other floors where huge amounts of chemicals and other flammable items were stored for use in packaging,” Bhoumik said.

About 100 people are believed to have been working at the building when flames tore through the four-storey factory. The fire occurred as workers prepared to swap shifts in the morning.

“What I have seen here is an industry with bad safety provisions,” Shaidul Haq, the inspector general of Bangladesh police told reporters gathered in the capital.

“We have to look into whether the factory had proper permission or proper documents.”

The fire is the latest in a series of industrial accidents in the South Asian country, which is the world's No. 2 garment exporter behind China. It is also the worst industrial accident in Bangladesh since the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza building outside Dhaka that killed over 1,100 workers, who were mainly employed in the garment industry.