16 Dead After Devastating Fire at Bangladesh Garment Factory

The fire broke out in the middle of the day yesterday, scorching a four-story garment factory and leading to chaotic evacuations across the building. The blaze was quickly extinguished after around three hours, but a nearby chemical warehouse was also on fire and could not be put out until around 9:00 pm local time.

Due to the fire's location at a chemical warehouse, several dangerous substances were present, including bleaching powder, hydrogen peroxide, and plastic. Plastic is highly flammable, while bleaching powder and hydrogen peroxide are both oxidizers that can easily strengthen a blaze. The combustion of these materials also releases toxic gases like chlorine gas and carbon monoxide, which could have killed people in mere seconds.

Additionally, the fire occurred in Mirpur, a city within the Dhaka metropolitan area, which is known for its historical sites but also contains some of the largest slums in the city. Unsafe drinking water and air pollution have created an extremely unhealthy environment for many Bangladeshis, who work in factories and sweatshops that often do not meet legal standards.

Authorities believe that this factory could be yet another example of a warehouse that fails to meet Bangladesh's poorly-enforced regulations, allowing them to operate without a legal license and avoid adhering to standard rules for worker environments.

Unfortunately, many companies from other countries like the United States and China continue to exploit Bangladesh's situation by moving their factories and warehouses there, allowing them to bypass regulations that they would have faced in their own countries. Bangladesh, on the other hand, does not have the capacity to maintain and enforce the rules that they have set, with a small police force and tens of thousands of people living in a single square mile– in fact, Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with around 75,000 people per square mile.

These lax safety standards, poor infrastructure, and constant violations of building codes have made it impossible for Bangladesh to keep the situation from getting out of hand, and fires continue to become more dangerous and more common across the country.