1 dies in fire at Gazipur chemical factory
One person has died and seven people were hurt in a fire that broke out at a chemical factory in Gazipur's Sreepur upazila this afternoon.
The deceased was identified as Alamgir Hossain (30), a worker of the factory, reports our Gazipur correspondent quoting Khondakar Imam Hossain, officer-in-charge of Sreepur Police Station.
Alamgir's body was recovered from the ground floor of the seven-storey factory building of ASM Chemical Industries Company Limited where the fire broke out.
Gazipur district administration has formed a five-member committee to investigate the fire.
The committee, led by Additional District Magistrate Abul Kalam, has been directed to submit its probe report within seven working days, said SM Tariqul Islam, deputy commissioner of Gazipur district.
The fire broke out at the factory in the upazila's Mulaid area around 4:45pm. Eight units of firefighters were still trying to douse the fire till last reported around 11:15pm, said Miya Raj Hossain, senior station officer at Sreepur Fire Service Station.
The whole building has been used for producing and storing chemicals including hydrogen peroxide, chlorine, bleaching powder, caustic soda, etc. It is preliminary suspected that the fire broke out following an explosion in the storage facility for hydrogen peroxide, the fire service official said.
"There were at least 22 workers present in the factory building when the fire broke out. Eight firefighting units from Sreepur, Gazipur, Tongi and Bhaluka brought the fire under control around 7:30pm, but it will take longer to completely douse the blaze since there are chemicals at the factory building including inflammable ones," Miya Raj said.
According to witnesses and locals, there was a huge explosion at the factory this afternoon, causing spread of toxic gases in the area and shattering windows of around 50 adjacent buildings.
It took around an hour for the air in the area to become somewhat tolerable, they said.
"Sixteen persons from the factory were brought to the hospital. Among them, six, including one with burn injuries, were shifted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital and one other to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) in Dhaka. The nine others have been released after primary treatment," said Nazmul Hasan, manager of Al Hera Hospital on Maona intersection.
Locals alleged that they have long been tracing presence of toxic gases in the deep tube-wells in the area due to chemical production at the factory. The factory workers are provided filtered and safe water, but the residents have been left in risk of health hazards, they said.
Numerous protest programmes, demonstrations and human chains were carried out by the locals but to no avail, they added.
Contacted, Md Sohel Rana, an official at the factory's Human Resources department, denied the allegations.
"All these are baseless allegations. The factory operates its production processes following the guidelines of the Department of Environment. Workers at the factory also drink water from the deep tube-well," he said.
The exact cause of the fire and the damage caused by it could not be known immediately.
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