“I lost my wife three years ago, and now I have lost my only daughter in the factory fire. What do I live for now?”
Delwar Hossain was saying these in a tearful voice in front of the Mitford Hospital morgue in Dhaka tonight.
His 16-year-old daughter Meem died from suffocation due to the smoke after a fire broke out at a gas lighter manufacturing factory at the Kadamtali intersection in Dhaka’s Keraniganj this afternoon.
Delwar, who works as a security guard, lives in Ambagicha, Keraniganj. His wife fell ill and passed away three years ago. He said he had put all his hopes and dreams on his only child, Meem.
He told The Daily Star, “After a fire broke out at my daughter's factory today, I called her phone three times around 12:45pm. I heard a lot of noise and commotion, but I couldn't hear her voice. Then I tried calling again, but the call wouldn't go through. After that, I kept calling repeatedly… but the calls wouldn't go through.”
Photo: Palash Khan/Star“At first, we went to the factory and then to the hospital. In the evening, I went to the Mitford morgue and saw my girl’s body lying there. I asked them many times, but they did not give her body to us,” Delwar said.
He said that Meem had joined the factory about 5 months ago.
“I only had one child… she was my life. I did not remarry thinking about her future. I wanted my daughter to study. Five months ago, my daughter was compelled in a way to start working,” he lamented.
“She would say, ‘You are always working. If I too get a job, then we will do a little better. Your burden will also be a little less’.”
Delwar said although Meem's body was identified in the evening, police did not hand it over.
Contacted, South Keraniganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Saiful Alam, told the Daily Star, “The bodies of five people have been recovered from that factory. They have been kept in the Mitford morgue. Among them, the body of a girl named Meem has been identified.”
The fire service said at 1:11pm, the control room received the news of a fire at the factory. A total of seven units of the fire service brought the fire under control around 2:30pm.
A total of five bodies were recovered from the site. In addition, 15 more people were injured.
According to the fire service, except for Meem, the other bodies were burnt to such an extent that their identities could not be determined immediately.
