DHAKA, Feb 22 — Funerals started today for victims of a devastating fire in a historic district of Dhaka in which almost 70 people died, burned alive by exploding chemical canisters or trapped by flames.
The disaster has sparked new calls for action by authorities to crack down on the widespread rogue storage of chemicals and other dangerous substances in apartment blocks.
City authorities said Friday that 46 bodies have been identified and handed over to families for burial.
Many were from Noakhali district in southwest Bangladesh where funerals were quickly organised in line with Muslim tradition.
Special prayers were also to be said at Friday prayers in mosques across the country.
Police forensic experts were brought in to carry out DNA tests on at least 21 other bodies burned beyond recognition.
Families were still waiting at Dhaka Medical College Hospital for news of missing relatives.
A gas canister is believed to have set off the disaster by sparking a fire in a building where chemicals for lighter fuels, deodorants and other household uses were illegally stored.
The fire quickly spread to four other buildings also used as chemical warehouses as well as for residents. Fireballs filled nearby streets killing pedestrians and people in nearby restaurants.
While police said a criminal inquiry has been launched, authorities faced difficult questions over why action promised after a similar disaster in the nearby Nimtoli area in 2010 was not carried out.
Dozens of buildings in Dhaka’s historic district with its clogged narrow streets and chaotic infrastructure were said to be used as stores.
“In the aftermath of the Nimtoli fiasco that claimed some 123 lives, we were assured that steps would be taken to remove flammable chemical storage from the residential area,” said a Daily Star editorial.
“As we have just found out, nothing much has happened and hundreds of families have lost their loved ones because the Nimtoli fire has disappeared from collective memory.”
“How many more people need to die,” it added.
Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader, an influential member of the Bangladesh cabinet, has promised a new crackdown.
“We’ll have a permanent solution soon,” the minister told AFP yesterday.
But activist groups have expressed scepticism.
Critics like Abu Naser Khan, head of the POBO citizens lobby group, said nothing was done after the previous tragedy.
“The law enforcers were reluctant to have those chemical warehouses moved from that densely populated area,” said Khan. “After the warehouse owners, the city corporation and the law enforcers are mainly to blame.” — AFP
