At least eight people have been killed in a fire that swept through a garment-making factory in the Bangladeshi capital, with the owner among the victims, police said on Thursday.
The cause of the fire was not known but authorities said it broke out during the night on the third floor of an 11-storey building housing two garment factories in the capital’s Darussalam district.
“There were no workers at the Tung Hai sweater factory when the fire started. It was a big fire. But we managed to confine it on one floor,” Mahbubur Rahman, operations director of the nation’s fire service department, told AFP.
He said the victims died of suffocation after rushing into a stairwell and becoming overcome by “toxic smoke from burnt acrylic clothing”.
Local police Chief Khalilur Rahman told AFP the fire killed “eight people including the owner, his four staff, a senior police officer, and a low-level police official.” We have identities of seven people. But we have not identified the eighth,” he said.
The fire is the latest deadly incident to hit Bangladesh’s textile industry, after the collapse of a factory complex last month that has left at least 803 dead and triggered the closure of 18 garment plants.
Fire is a common problem in the 4,500 garment factories in Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest apparel maker. Many operations are based in badly constructed buildings with substandard electrical wiring.