Factory fire kills five in Bogura
Five workers died in a fire that spread through three acres of a disposable plastic factory in Bogura's Adamdighi upazila yesterday.
The blaze started around 11:30am at the BIRS Plastic Industries Limited factory in the upazila's Habib Mor area.
According to day shift workers, they heard a loud sound in the machine unit right before the fire broke out.
Police and fire service officials could not yet identify the source of the flames. However, they found the safety measures in the factory were inadequate.
Around 12 fire-fighting units from Bogura and Naogaon brought the fire under control after a two-hour long effort.
The bodies of the victims could not be recognised, as they were charred badly, police and fire service officials said.
The district administration formed a four-member probe body, headed by an additional district magistrate, who will submit a report within the next seven working days, said Ziaul Haque, deputy commissioner of Bogura.
A worker of the factory said, "I was at the front part. I suddenly heard a loud noise and moments later, dense smokes began spreading through the factory. Some of my colleagues and I immediately ran out through the main gate."
Abdul Malek, deputy assistant director of Bogura's Fire Service and Civil Defence, said, "We could not identify the cause of the fire, but we talked to some of the workers who were present during the incident and they told us it generated from the machine unit.
"They also said that due to extreme heat in the production unit, there was a spark that ignited the trash in the bin near the machine unit."
The fire service official added, "There were not adequate fire extinguishers in such a large factory; there weren't enough exit doors either. We found five charred bodies at the rear end of the factory. There was a small emergency gate there, but it was locked. If it were not, the five could have survived."
AKM Morshed, deputy assistant director of Naogaon Fire Service and Civil Defence, said, "It is a large factory, but we did not find adequate measures to put out a fire immediately. We only found some small extinguishers, which weren't sufficient."
He further said, "We also came to know the workers did not even know how to use a fire extinguisher."
Contacted, Jalal Uddin, OC of the Adamdighi Police Station, said, "We have called the CID forensic team to identify the charred bodies. They are working on it."
Jahangir Alam, accountant of the factory, said, "We had 70, including 15 women, working in two shifts. At least 11 women were working during the incident yesterday."
Contacted, Tofazzal Hossain, owner of the factory and also the mayor of Santahar municipality, said, "I was at the municipality office during the incident. The fire gutted my factory and damaged things worth around Tk 30 crore."
Asked about fire safety measures, he claimed he had "all the required facilities" in his factory.
It was also found that the factory does not have any environmental clearance.
When asked about this, the mayor said, "I have applied for a clearance certificate from the Department of Environment."
Sufia Nazim, director of DoE at Rajshahi's divisional office in Bogura, said, "The BIRS Plastic Industries Limited has no environmental certificate. They had applied a year ago but there was a High Court order that no factory can produce one-time use plastic products after BELA filed a writ petition in this regard. Thus, I did not give them environmental clearance."
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