Photo by Arifur Rahman/AFP via Getty Images
At least 39 people died and 70 more were injured in a fire on a crowded river ferry in Bangladesh early Friday, AP reports.
Driving the news: The fire started at around 3 a.m. local time, and the ferry was carrying 800 passengers from Dhaka, the country's capital, to Barguna, officials said.
- The death toll was likely to rise because many who had jumped into the water to escape the fire were still missing, the New York Times reports, citing local officials.
- Fire officer Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan said it took two hours to control the fire and eight more hours to cool down the ferry. The fire may have started in the engine room, he said.
- The Bangladesh government set up two committees to investigate the fire, and the committees need to report their findings in three days, AP reports.
The big picture: Fires have ravaged Bangladesh in recent years, with one killing over 50 workers trapped in a factory and another tearing through a refugee camp earlier this year.
- Another fire in Bangladesh's Chalantika slum in 2019 left 50,000 people homeless.