6 others severely burnt at an anti-mosquito spray and coil store in city
At least five workers were burnt alive and six others injured, as a fire broke out at an anti-mosquito coil and spray warehouse last night.
The one-storey tin-roofed building was full of anti-mosquito spray cans labelled Good Night Mosquito Spray and without any signboard.
The fire that started around 9:30pm gutted the structure within half an hour.
Fire fighters, who reached the site around 10:00pm, recovered five charred bodies from the burnt-out remains.
The dead couldn’t be identified immediately.
Six others were admitted to the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital with severe burns.
They are Iqbal Hossain, 28, Jewel, 24, Saidur Rahman, 30, Anwarul Islam, 23, Abdul Hamidul, 20, and Enamul, 25.
The injured told reporters the fire broke out when the workers were removing chemicals from date-expired cans using a machine.
Jahangir Alam, who resides at a neighbouring house, said the fire erupted following a bang.
“Hundreds of cans exploded one after another for around half an hour,” he said.
At least 11 fire engines reached the spot about half an hour after the factory was ablaze. Fire meantime started going out.
Asked, Brig Gen Abu Naim Md Shahidullah, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defence, they were yet to ascertain the cause of the fire.
Iqbal Hossain, one of the injured, said the fire erupted from the explosion of a bottle of aerosol that was being disposed caused the fire.
“Flammable chemicals somehow came in contact with fire,” he said. “Twelve workers were working there at the time.”
Witnesses said the column of fire was around 100 feet high.
