A grave human tragedy unfolding in a gutted tyre factory near Dhaka

Tragic fire at Bangladesh tyre factory leads to mass casualties, sparked by raiding crowd and industry chemicals.

A massive fire that began on August 25 in one of the largest tyre factories of Bangladesh is turning out to be a great human tragedy. Located in the industrial township of Narayanganj near Dhaka, the Gazi auto tyre factory of Rupshi, owned by Golam Dastgir Gazi, chairman of the once powerful Gazi group, is well known in the area.

The fortune of the Gazi group began to change with the fall of the Hasina government on August 5. Mr. Gazi, who was the Minister of Textile and Jute under Ms. Hasina was arrested on August 25. He had earlier gone into hiding.

Some time after the news of Mr. Gazi’s arrest was telecast, a large crowd gathered from nearby areas and raided the main warehouse in the back of the tyre factory that had many items, including a large amount of inflammable liquid substances.

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The exact size of the crowd that raided the five-storied warehouse is not known. According to store assistant Russel Hossein, who spoke to The Hindu, the size of the crowd filled up the entire staircase of the warehouse, indicating that there were several hundred people, who had turned up to cart away the materials hoping to earn some cash by selling them in the nearby scrap market.

“I saw men, women and even children had turned up to take away wires, rubber sheets and canisters full of liquid items,” said Mr. Hossein, recollecting the evening of August 25.

As the people entered the warehouse, a fire began in the lower portion of the building, which trapped everyone upstairs. “We stood at a distance and it turned totally dark as large explosions were heard from inside the warehouse. No one could escape. The fire spread fast,” said Mr. Hossein. The irony was that the store assistants and guards like Mr. Hossein were reportedly beaten up by the crowd before they broke into the warehouse.