Not equipped to fight fire

Firefighters have primarily found absence of necessary fire-dousing equipment at the Ashulia gas lighter factory as an under-aged girl labourer, who received severe burns in Tuesday's fire, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday.

There were extinguishers at the tin-roofed single-storey factory, said Samarendra Nath Biswas, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence, Dhaka.

“But we did not see any hosepipe to convey water immediately to douse the flames,” he said, adding that they also did not find reserve of sands which could be used to extinguish the fire.

The firefighters found these in primary investigation, said Samarendra, adding that the factory was launched in 2012 and is owned by one Kaiser Hamid, who is on the run.

A three-member committee headed by Assistant Director Dilip Kumar Ghosh was formed yesterday to probe the incident, he added.

Locals have alleged that more than 100 children were working at the factory, reports a correspondent in Savar.

The deceased child labourer has meanwhile been identified as Akhi Banu, 14. She had joined the factory in October this year, said her family.

With 35 percent physical burns and damaged respiratory tract, Akhi succumbed to her injuries around 2:00am yesterday at the Intensive Care Unit of the Burn Unit of DMCH.

Partha Sankar Paul, resident surgeon of the Burn Unit, said four more burn victims were being given treatment at the ICU and four others at the High Dependency Unit.

The conditions of all the eight were critical, said Partha, adding that 12 other injured were taking treatment at post-operative and general ward.

Their conditions were not yet out of danger, the doctor informed.  

Akhi's father Ashraful Islam, a rickshaw-puller who lives at Baipail, said his daughter joined the factory with the help of a female friend and without informing them.

Ashraful, who hailed from Mithapukur of Rangpur, added he and his wife had strictly forbidden their daughter to continue with the job.

“We wanted to send her to school and raise her as an educated person,” he lamented.

The father further said he had last talked to his daughter at a local hospital in Ashulia where she was whimpering in pain and could hardly say anything.

At least 26 female workers have suffered burns, many of them critically, after a fire broke out at the gas lighter factory on Tuesday afternoon.

Locals said the fire engulfed the factory building after an explosion. Firefighters with nine fire engines from different fire stations doused the blazes after two hours of frantic effort.

Twenty-one of the injured women, aged between 14 and 40, were admitted to the DMCH Burn Unit and five to Enam Medical College Hospital (EMCH) in Savar.

Mohsinul Qadir, officer-in-charge (OC) of Ashulia police, said no case was filed in connection with the incident as of yesterday afternoon.

Enamul Haque, lawmaker from Savar, visited the injured at the DMCH, said hospital sources.

DMCH Deputy Director Khawaja Abdul Gafur said they were giving maximum importance to ensure treatment of the burn victims.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Md Sarwar Bari of Dhaka said they gave Tk 20,000 to the deceased's family and Tk 10,000 each to the families of the injured yesterday.

Dhaka Export Processing Zone Senior Station Officer Abdul Hamid, a member of the probe committee, said they found no Fire Service and Civil Defence certificate at the factory.

This kind of factory must have such a certificate, he added.

Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust and Communist Party of Bangladesh in separate statements yesterday demanded exemplary punishment of the culprits responsible for the deadly fire after a fair probe.