Thursday, February 21, 2019

81 people died yesterday in a fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The fire took nearly fourteen hours to put out. It is unclear how it started.

It broke out Wednesday at around 23:40, local time (17:40 GMT). This meant many of those living nearby were sleeping when the fire started.

The building the fire broke out in was a residential building. However, flammable substances were being kept in the building. The district has narrow streets and the houses are tightly packed. The firefighters were disadvantaged by the narrowness of the streets and the lack of water.

The death toll is expected to rise. It is thought that part of a bridal party has been killed in the blaze.

The police and witnesses claim explosions of gas helped the fire spread.

Mohammad Firoz sold cosmetics. He says that 25 of his friends and relatives are now missing and he is worried his brother is dead. He said that the ‘flames spread so quickly’. His brother thought there was a bombing, so had closed his shop.

Apparently, many of the bodies were burnt so badly they cannot be identified.

Authorities banned the storage of chemical goods in the district after a deadly fire in 2010. In another district, a fire in 2010 killed 124 people; a fire which was made worse by a chemical warehouse in the area.

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