Dhaka, Bangladesh Building Explosion Kills At Least 17; Many More Hurt

DHAKA, Bangladesh — At least 17 people were killed, and dozens more were injured in an explosion on Tuesday in a seven-story commercial building in the capital of Bangladesh.

According to fire department official Rashed bin Khaled, the blast happened in the Gulistan area of Dhaka, a popular shopping district.

Fire officials said the building’s first two floors, where several stores selling plumbing and household goods were located, were severely damaged in the blaze.

Some reports suggested that built-up gas was to blame for the explosion, but this was not immediately confirmed.

Khaled said at least eleven fire departments have responded to the blast.

According to police official Bacchu Mia, at least 14 people were found dead at the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He said the others succumbed to their wounds over time. According to local media, the explosion reportedly injured at least one hundred people.

According to the United News of Bangladesh, people on higher floors were reportedly trapped for hours following the explosion.

Brigadier General Main Uddin, who is in charge of the Fire Service and Civil Defense, said that they couldn’t get into the ground floor and didn’t know for sure if anyone was trapped or not.

He said that getting to the ground floor was impossible because the building had become extremely dangerous due to the collapse of the columns that hold it up.

After the search and rescue operation begins on Wednesday morning, he said, they will ask for military assistance.

Many factory fires and other industrial disasters have occurred in Bangladesh, sometimes trapping workers inside. Watchdog groups have blamed fraud and lax enforcement.

a massive fire broke out on Sunday in a crowded refugee camp in southern Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims were displaced when a massive fire broke out on Sunday in a crowded refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. There were no reported casualties at the Balukhali camp in the Cox’s Bazar area.

About 117 people were killed in a Dhaka garment factory in 2012 when they could not escape from an area locked down.

When the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed the following year, killing more than 1,100 people, it was the worst industrial disaster in the country’s history.

At least 67 people were killed when a fire tore through a 400-year-old neighborhood packed with apartments, shops, and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka in 2019. In 2010, at least 123 people were killed in a fire at a house in Old Dhaka that was being used to store chemicals illegally.
At least 52 people died in a 2021 fire at a food and beverage factory outside Dhaka; many were trapped inside because the door had been locked inside.

At least 41 people, including nine firefighters, were killed, and more than 100 were injured in a fire at a shipping container storage depot near the country’s main Chittagong Seaport last year.

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SOURCE – (AP)