Police have recovered a female body 12 days after the fire at a chemical warehouse in Mirpur’s Shialbari area of the capital, raising the death toll from the incident to 17.
The body was recovered around 7:30pm on Sunday from inside a garment factory located in front of Shah Alam Chemical warehouse in Shialbari by Rupnagar police station officers.
The deceased was identified as Marzia Sultana, 14, daughter of Md Sultan Mia from Golla Rajapur village in Dharmapasha upazila of Sunamganj. She lived with her family in Mojibur’s slum on Road-12 of the Shialbari area.
Her father, Sultan Mia, said Marzia and her husband, Joy Mia, both worked at the same garment factory. Joy’s body had been recovered earlier after the fire, but Marzia had remained missing.
“We believed her body was still inside the building,” Sultan said.
“We searched repeatedly but could not find her. Later on Sunday afternoon, I went to the police station, and officers accompanied me to search again. Eventually, we found her body crushed under a machine on the third floor. I recognized her by her burqa.”
The October 14 inferno
The devastating fire broke out on the night of October 14 at the Sarkar Chemical warehouse and Shah Alam Chemical warehouse in the Shialbari industrial area near the BUBT campus under Rupnagar police station.
Following chemical explosions, the blaze spread to an adjacent four-storey garment factory.
Fire service personnel later recovered 16 bodies from inside the building, which were handed over to the families after post-mortem examinations. Marzia had been missing since the incident.
On Sunday evening, her decomposed body was found under machinery on the third floor of the garment factory. Police said the recovery operation was delayed due to the strong stench from the decayed remains.
Rupnagar police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Morshed Alam said: “Around Sunday evening, we recovered one more body from inside the garment factory at the fire site. This brings the death toll to 17.”
He added: “At first, it was difficult to determine whether the body was male or female. Since the incident, one family had reported their daughter missing, and they later identified the body.”
Marzia’s body has been sent to the Dhaka Medical College morgue for post-mortem examination.
