Fire spread after loud explosion

“I heard a loud explosion while entering my office in the morning. Then I saw fire spreading and the building collapsing. I fell unconscious while rushing towards neighboring Bangladesh Textile factory, on the other side of our factory wall,” said Mahbub, at the Gazipur 50-bed hospital on Saturday.

Mahbub, who works as a helper on the third floor of Tempaco Factory, was among the injured where at least 24 people, mostly workers, were killed and more than 50 injured in a boiler explosion that caused a fire in Tongi, Gazipur, in the morning.

Shahidul Haque was also under treatment in the hospital, after he was injured in the incident with two more, who were passengers of a ‘human hauler’ vehicle.

The vehicle overturned when it swerved to avoid hitting a rickshaw that caught fire when hit by a burning object from the explosion.

Three people including the driver of the rickshaw sustained burn injuries and two other passengers of the human hauler were injured in the incident.

Shahidul said he worked in another garments factory and was heading to the Tongi bus stand to go to his hometown in Madaripur for the Eid vacation.

The people with burn injuries in the incident were shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital from the Gazipur 50-bed hospital.

Fariduzzaman, another RMG worker, came to the Gazipur hospital to look for Chunnu Mia, a worker of Tempaco Factory. 

He was carrying the national identity card (NID) and also the worker’s ID card of Chunnu Mia.

Fariduzzaman and Chunnu Mia stayed together with two others. Chunnu went to work in the morning. Fariduzzaman failed to trace Chunnu till 4:30pm.

Dr. Zahid Hasan of the hospital said 19 bodies was sent to Dhaka Medical College till the afternoon. Among the injured, 30 were taken to the hospital. Later, 27 of them were sent to DMCH.