Dhaka: Social Welfare Adviser Sharmeen Soneya Murshid today called for relocating chemical warehouses from densely populated areas to safer places alongside taking tougher action against those responsible for the devastating fire in Mirpur. “We have to formulate stronger policy to remove chemical warehouses from densely populated areas,” she said while briefing newsmen after visiting the Mirpur fire site.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the adviser mentioned that the people responsible for the Mirpur fire need to be identified through proper investigation. “Expose the perpetrators to justice,” she said, describing the chemical warehouse in Mirpur as illegal.
She continued that the warehouses, which proliferated in different parts of the capital following a past fire in a chemical depot in Old Dhaka, need to be identified and relocated to safer places. The adviser assured of extending all kinds of cooperation to the family members of the deceased and injured from her ministry, noting that a help desk has already been set up in Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
The fire broke out in a ready-made garment factory and an adjacent chemical warehouse on Tuesday. Explosions in the two-storey warehouse spread the fire to a four-story building next door. Sixteen bodies were later recovered from different areas of the four-story building’s first and second floors.