
Social welfare and women and children affairs adviser Sharmeen S Murshid on Wednesday 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 after visiting Mirpur fire site.
The adviser said that the people responsible for the Mirpur fire would have to identify first through proper investigation.
‘Expose the perpetrators to justice,’ she said, terming the chemical warehouse at Mirpur as illegal.
She continued that the warehouses which were spread to different parts of the capital following a devastating fire in chemical depot in Old Dhaka need to be identified first and then relocate those to safer places.
The adviser assured of extending all kinds of cooperation to the family members of the deceased and injured from her ministry.
She said that a help desk had 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.