The horrific fire erupted at a chemical warehouse in old Dhaka's Chawkbazar area on Wednesday night which claimed the life of nearly 80 people so far.

A total of 78 bodies were kept at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) morgue, said Professor Sohel Mahmud, chief of Dhaka Medical College forensic department.

According to Dhaka Medical College Hospital sources, more than 50 injured people are undergoing treatment. Of them, 16 are in critical condition.

Among the deceased, 36 were identified as of Thursday evening while bodies of 32 were handed over to their families, according to the sources of DMCH.

The identified deceased are Arafat, Shahadat Hossain, Helal Uddin, Enamul Haque Kazi, Mosharraf Hossain, Kamal Hossain, Siddique Ullah, Wasi Uddin, Syed Khabir, Jummon, Ali Hossain, Yamin Khan Roni, Morshed Alam, Mithu, Sajib, Hafez Md Kawsar, Abdur Rahim alias Dulal, Mahir, Sonia, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Imtiaz Imroze Rasu, Masud Rana, Mabubur Rahman Raju, Ashraf Haque Rajan, Omar Faruk, Md Ali, Apu Raihan, Jasim Uddin, Md Raju, Md Nayan Khan, Ayesha Khatun, Anwar Hossain, Siam Arafat, Mojibur Hawladar, Alauddin Mahi and Nur Hossain.

The rescue mission has been called off today around 12:10pm, after 15 hours of the fire eruption.

Dhaka district administration announced to provide Tk20,000 for each body burial during handover the bodies, said Senior Deputy Commissioner Imrul Hasan.

The fire broke out around 10:45pm yesterday on the ground floor of the five-storey building-Hazi Wahed Mansion.

A total of thirty-seven units of firefighters from 13 fire stations brought the fire under control around 3 am (Thursday).

Health Ministry asked the hospital authorities to take necessary steps to ensure the proper treatment of the victims.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the authorities concerned to provide “humanitarian assistance and compensation” to the victims of deadly fire broke out.

Fire Service and Civil Defence has formed a 3-member committee-- comprising of Deputy Director of Operation and Maintenance of fire service Dilip Ghosh, DAD Abdul Halim and AD Salahuddin to investigate the incident.