Bangladesh Factory Fire Death Toll Soars to 121 - Fire Chief

Source : http://www.turkishweekly

The death toll from a fire at a Bangladeshi factory soared to at least 121 as rescue workers recovered 112 bodies Sunday, the national fire chief said.

"We've found 112 dead bodies this morning," said fire brigade director general Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah. "We resumed our search this morning and found the bodies lying on different floors of the factory building," he said.

The fire broke out in the ground-floor warehouse of the multi-storey Tazreen Fashion factory 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Dhaka on Saturday evening, trapping hundreds of workers on the upper floors, police said.

Police inspector Mostofa Kamal had previously told that nine workers died and about 100 workers were injured. Kamal said many workers jumped from the factory's upper floors to escape the flames before firefighters arrived to put the blaze out.

The cause was not immediately known but fires as a result of short circuits and shoddy electrical wiring are common in Bangladeshi garment plants, which use cheap labour to produce clothes shipped to Western countries.

Dhaka factory fire kills

At least nine workers died when a fire ripped through a clothing factory at Ashulia, on the outskirts of Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Saturday night, officials said.

Officials said the fire started on the first floor of the nine-story building and immediately spread to other floors, leaving hundreds of workers, mostly women, trapped.

Police said at least 200 people were injured as they rushed to get out of the building. "Many were injured in stampede and as they jumped off the building," said a rescuer.

Sixteen engines of fire service and civil defense had not put out the fire completely after more than eight hours.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the blaze.

Voice of Russia, CNN, AFP