Bangladesh Fire: Over 1,500 Dead in 10 Yrs in Fire-Related Industrial Accidents

At least 44 people died and 22 were critically injured in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka after a massive blaze broke out in a biryani restaurant to rage through a six-storey building.

Hundreds of people have been killed in similar fires or other accidents in buildings servicing the booming domestic industrial and commercial sectors where adequate safety measures can sometimes be neglected.

Here are some of the major incidents of recent years:

• June 2022: More than 40 people were killed and 200 injured after a fire broke out in a depot near the southern port city of Chittagong, in a blaze fire officials said could have been caused by a container of hydrogen peroxide as safety regulations were not followed.
• July 2021: A fire killed at least 52 people in a food processing factory outside Dhaka that officials said was built without permission and lacked safety measures.
• Feb. 2019: A fire killed at least 70 people in a building in old Dhaka with shops and a plastics warehouse on its two lower floors and homes on the three floors above that officials blamed on illegally stored inflammable chemicals.
• Sept. 2016: At least 33 people were killed in a fire at a food and cigarette packaging plant in Dhaka, which officials said was probably triggered by a gas line leak and a boiler explosion.
• Aug. 2016: More than 100 people were taken ill after inhaling gas that leaked from a fertilizer factory in Chittagong.
• April 2013: At least 1,136 people died and hundreds were injured in the country’s worst industrial accident, when an eight-storey building near Dhaka home to five garment factories collapsed.
• Nov. 2012: A fire at a garment factory in Dhaka that supplied global brands killed 112 workers and injured more than 150. Officials said the blaze was caused by a short circuit.