Eight years have passed since 123 people were killed in Old Dhaka’s Nimtoli chemical warehouse – an incident that shook the nation.

Following the devastating Nimtoli tragedy in June 2010, the commerce ministry was supposed to build a “chemical village” in Keraniganj.

But the initiative remained in ghost papers.

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Chawkbazar fire: Rescue called off; death toll 70

The Dhaka South City Corporation evict the warehouses and factories that do not have a license in Old Dhaka; but all efforts were futile.

Action or not, the eight years in passing left a trail of warehouse fires in Old Dhaka and finally led to last night’s blaze in Chawkbazar that left 70 dead.

August 22, 2010:

A fire at a chemicals storehouse left three people seriously injured in a residential area of Lalbagh in Old Dhaka only four days after the government extended the deadline for shifting chemicals warehouses to a safer location.

October 05, 2010:

Jatrabari chemical factory fire claimed seven lives including critical burn injury to four.

October 28, 2010:

A fire broke out in a chemical warehouse at Armanitola of Old Dhaka but fortunately there were no casualties.

December 06, 2010:

Two youths were badly burned while refilling cigarette lighters at a building storing liquid petroleum gas and lighter refill canisters on Nazimuddin Road in Dhaka.

March 07, 2015:

Four persons were seriously injured in a fire that broke out in a chemical warehouse housed on the third floor of a six-storey building in Chhoto Katra area of the capital.