A relative mourns while holding a picture of a missing girl following a fire that broke out at a garment factory and a chemical warehouse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on October 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
At least nine workers were killed and eight others injured on Tuesday (October 14, 2025) in a fire that broke out at a garment factory and a chemical warehouse in Bangladesh capital, officials said.
The devastating fire broke out at a chemical warehouse next to the garment factory, Talha Bin Jasim, an officer at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Wing, was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency.
Nine bodies have been recovered from the first and second floors of the garment factory, Fire Service and Civil Defence Director (Operation and Maintenance) Lt Col Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury told reporters. “We suspect that all of them have died after inhaling toxic gas,” Mr. Chowdhury was quoted as saying by Bangla language daily Prothom Alo.
Smoke rises from a building as fire broke out at a garment factory and a chemical warehouse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on October 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
He added that the fire was brought under control, and firefighters are conducting searches at the garment factory.
“The number might go up,” Talha Bin Jasim said.
He said they received the report of the fire at 11:40 a.m. (local time), and the first team arrived at the scene at 11:56 a.m.
The two buildings are located side by side in front of Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT) in Rupnagar, he said.
Nine firefighting engines rushed to the spot around 11:56 a.m. and doused the blaze in the buildings, he said.
Bangladesh has a history of industrial disasters. Past industrial tragedies have often been attributed to safety lapses.
In 2021, a fire engulfed a food and drink factory in Bangladesh, killing at least 52 people.
In February 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people.
In 2012, about 117 workers died when they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka.
Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster occurred the following year, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
Another fire in Old Dhaka in a house illegally storing chemicals killed at least 123 people in 2010.
Published – October 14, 2025 06:32 pm IST
