Narayanganj factory fire

Owners yet to submit building documents

Owners yet to submit building documents

The authority of the gutted Hashem Foods factory on Monday failed to provide safety-related documents to the probe committee formed by the fire service.

Narayanganj fire service deputy assistant director Tanharul Islam said they had sought information on the fire safety clearing certificate and designs of the six-storey building on Sunday.

But the factory authority was yet to provide the documents, he said while he expected that the documents would soon be handed over.

Meanwhile, the probe committee has few more days to submit its report.

Fire service officials said that the building was crammed with chemical containers which caused massive flames in the congested building that had only two exits and no emergency exit.

The probe committee has also been conducting chemical analyses of fire debris in the affected building.

In another development, the labour ministry on Monday formed a six-member probe committee to investigate the fire incident in the juice factory owned by Sajeeb Group at Rupganj in Narayanganj.

The committee led by the ministry’s joint secretary Humayun Kabir was instructed to file their report in 10 working days.

With this, four separate probe committees have been formed to investigate the fire that killed at least 52 workers.

Children were also employed by the factory owners as many underage victims were found.

The children, mostly aged between 13-18 years, were employed for around Tk 6,000-7,000 per month said family members of victims.

Labour ministry probe committee chief Humayun said that they learnt from newspaper reports that child labourers were employed in the factory.

The fire occurred at the factory at about 5:00pm on Thursday and was brought under control by Friday afternoon after a 20-hour-long effort by the fire-fighters.

At least 52 workers died, of which 49 were trapped on the third floor with its only exit locked and died while three others died after jumping off the six-storey food-processing factory.

Police arrested eight including the factory owner Sajeeb Group chairman Md Abul Hashem, his sons and associates. They are now in police custody on a four-day remand each.

Meanwhile, the CID has closed its DNA sample collection booth in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.

The CID has collected DNA samples from 48 dead bodies in the morgue, said assistant DNA analyst Nusrat Yasmin.

Of the 48 bodies, 31 are female and 17 are male.

Samples of 68 people, who approached the authorities looking for missing family members, were collected against the 48 dead bodies, CID officials said.