Why the Fire Tragedy Repeats

The grief-stricken people gathered in front of the Shezan Juice factory building in search of their loved ones who are still missing. Some are grieving the loss of relatives while others are still looking for them.

At noon on Friday (July 9), 49 bodies were recovered from inside the factory. Earlier, three people were killed in the blaze. So far 52 bodies have been recovered. More than 50 people are missing in the incident of a factory fire. A committee has been formed by the district administration to investigate the incident. Fifty workers were reportedly injured in the blaze. They are being treated at various hospitals including Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Workers and eyewitnesses said about 7,000 workers worked at the Shezan juice factory in the Kornogop area. A fire broke out from a carton on the ground floor of the seven-storey factory. Within moments the fire spread throughout the building. At this time the factory became dark due to black smoke. At one point the workers began to rush. Some took up position on the roof of the building. Some jumped from the top to save their lives and were injured. 18 units of the fire service started working in phases to control the fire.

Exactly what caused the fire to break is not yet known. After investigation, it may go. The fire has been burning in the burnt factory for 20 hours. Experts say the reason is the presence of a lot of combustible material on each floor. The raw materials used in the factory also play a role in the origin and spread of fire here. And the factory's own fire-fighting capacity and security were rickety. There have been four fires before. If the fire cannot be stopped at an early stage, it later gets out of control. Then there is nothing to do. When the fire broke out in this factory, it could not be controlled anymore.

Different raw materials and colors are used to make food. In addition, resins, solvents, or other such petrochemicals are used in various polymer companies for packaging. When these materials come in contact with fire, they melt into liquid fuel. Workers say Hashem Foods had such ingredients.

The bodies recovered from the building were so badly burnt that the family members could not identify the bodies, said Lt Col Zillur Rahman, director (operations) of the fire brigade. He said the bodies were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for DNA test. The bodies will be identified through tests and handed over to relatives.

Colonel Zillur Rahman said the bodies of 49 people were recovered from the ground floor to the fourth floor after the fire was initially brought under control. Most of the bodies were recovered from the fourth floor. Many bodies were also found on the stairs. Large packets of foil paper, chemicals, and biscuits-lozenges-cakes-juice-noodles were stored in other places including the stairs. The fire was burning on the stairs through these. As a result, the workers trapped on the fourth floor could not go to the roof and could not go down.

The director of the fire brigade said the GI on each floor was made like a net with wire. There was an arrangement for the workers to come and go through this net. This place to come and go is very small. As a result, when the whole building was covered in smoke, many people got stuck trying to get out through this gate. The building, which employs 6,000 to 7,000 workers, was supposed to have at least four large staircases. But there were only two stairs in this building, even narrower. It became narrower as different products were piled up on one side of the stairs.

Ready-made garment factories are under pressure from outside buyers. Due to this more importance is given to that sector. But there is not enough initiative to take proper care of factories like chemical factories, plastic factories, or food manufacturing companies. There were no necessary policies and guidelines to ensure chemical safety.

Analysts say there needs to be a proper investigation into any accidents. Not an investigation to blame anyone. The origin of an accident may cause by a small thing but there can be many reasons behind it. It is necessary to find out the exact causes and formulate recommendations for the prevention of similar accidents and give them to the concerned agencies and factories.

In this context, BUET Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering. "We had an accident here," said Yasser Arafat Khan. There is a lot of talk about this and one or more investigation teams are formed. They give a report, it never comes to us again. We do not know what was recommended in the investigation report into the fire at the Trumpako Foils factory in Tongi, Gazipur. Those recommendations do not seem to have been sent to such factories. If sent and urged to take necessary action, perhaps such an accident could have been avoided.