At least 120 killed in Bangladesh factory fire

waltky · Jan 24, 2013

The check's in the mail...

Bangladesh fire victims' families wait for money
24 Jan.`13 When fire ravaged a Bangladeshi garment factory, killing 112 workers, dozens of their families did not even have a body to bury because their loved ones' remains were burned beyond recognition. Two months later, the same families have yet to receive any of the compensation they were promised not even their relatives' last paychecks.

An official with the country's powerful garment industry said DNA tests must first be conducted to confirm the losses of more than 50 families. He would not say why the families have not even received the wages their relatives had earned before the Nov. 24 blaze. Many of the families desperately need money after losing their primary breadwinners in the fire at the Tazreen factory, which made clothes for Wal-Mart, Disney and other Western brands. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, a foreign supplier and the government promised to give the families of the dead 600,000 takas ($7,500) each, finance the education of the dead workers' children and pay the November salaries of both dead and surviving factory workers. "I have got nothing. Nobody is saying anything," said Ansar, who uses one name and who lost his wife and daughter in the fire.

The 55-year-old is too ill to work himself. His 16-year-old son, who also worked at Tazreen, managed to escape but was traumatized by leaving his mother and sister behind "amid the darkness and ash," Ansar said at his home near the gutted factory. The boy got a job at another factory but was unable to work because of his trauma. "My son cannot sleep," Ansar said, sobbing. "He wakes up at midnight and then cries for a long time. The same thing happens to him every night." Ansar has been unable to pay his rent for two months and fears that if he gets evicted and is forced to return to his home village in the impoverished north, he may never be compensated.

The fire drew international attention to the conditions that garment workers toil under in Bangladesh, where the $20 billion-a-year textile industry is incredibly powerful and politically connected. The factory lacked emergency exits and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off. A government panel concluded that the fire was sabotage. No one has been charged with setting the blaze, though three officials accused of locking in workers have been arrested. Siddiqur Rahman, vice president of the garment association, said checks have been cut for families of the 59 victims whose bodies were identified. In addition, 80 workers injured in the fire received 100,000 takas each.

http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-fire-victims-families-wait-money-084921586--finance.html
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waltky · Jan 28, 2013

Another fabric factory fire in Bangladesh...

Report: Investigation Ordered into Latest Bangladesh Factory Fire
January 27, 2013 - An official in Bangladesh says the government has ordered an investigation into allegations that the only emergency exit was locked at a garment factory where a fire on Saturday killed seven female workers.

The Associated Press cites a government official, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, as saying an inquiry has been ordered into the cause of the blaze and the contention about the exit. Dhaka police inspector Shamsul Hoque told the AP Sunday that Altaf Hossain, father of a garment worker killed in the fire, has filed a case against three directors of the factory, accusing them of negligence.

Saturday's fire at the Smart Export Garment Ltd. factory occurred just two months after a blaze killed 112 workers in another factory near the capital, raising questions about safety in Bangladeshs garment industry, which exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The gates of that factory were locked. Also Sunday, three international labor rights groups called for global clothing retailers to ensure improved safety measures for garment workers in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories that make clothes for international brands. The country earns about $20 billion annually from overseas clothing sales, roughly 80 percent of its exports. Work conditions in the country's garment factories are notoriously poor. Officials say at least 500 people have died in Bangladeshi garment factory accidents and fires since 2006. Activists say plant owners are rarely prosecuted for poor safety conditions.

Source
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See also:

Bangladesh probing if factory's 1 exit was locked
Jan 27,`13 -- Bangladesh's government is investigating allegations that the sole emergency exit was locked at a garment factory where a fire killed seven women.

The fire Saturday at the Smart Export Garment Ltd. factory occurred just two months after a blaze killed 112 workers in another factory, raising questions about safety in Bangladesh's garment industry, which exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The gates of that factory were locked. Government official Jahangir Kabir Nanak said Sunday an investigation has been ordered into the cause of Saturday's fire and allegations that the emergency exit was locked. Altaf Hossain, father of a garment worker killed in the latest fire, has filed a police case against three directors of the factory, accusing them of negligence involving the fire, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Sub-inspector Shamsul Hoque told The Associated Press. He said police had begun an investigation.

Doctors said most of the victims died from asphyxiation. "When I tried to escape through the emergency exit I found the gate locked," factory worker Raushan Ara was quoted as saying by Dhaka's Prothom Alo newspaper. The newspaper said at least 50 people were injured in a stampede triggered by the fire, and six of them were hospitalized. Some of the injured jumped out of the windows of the two-story factory, survivors said. Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Monzurul Kabir said the bodies of seven women were recovered from the top floor of the factory. He said the factory was making pants and shirts, but could not provide further details.

Fire official Abdul Halim said it took firefighters about two hours to bring the blaze under control. Volunteers joined firefighters in battling the fire as a large crowd gathered outside the factory awaiting word on the fate of relatives. Family members were seen crying near the body of a female worker named Josna, who was 16. About 250 workers were working at the time of the fire, newspapers said. It was not immediately known if the factory produced garments for any international companies. The owner was not available for comment, and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said the factory was not a member so it had no details.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. alerted its global suppliers that it will immediately drop them if they subcontract their work to factories that haven't been authorized by the discounter. The stricter contracting rule, along with other changes to its policy, come amid increasing calls for better safety oversight after the deadly fire in late November at a factory owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd. that supplied clothing to Wal-Mart and other retailers. Wal-Mart has said the factory wasn't authorized to make its clothes. Wal-Mart ranks second behind Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M in the number of clothing orders it places in Bangladesh. Fires have caused more than 600 deaths of garment workers in Bangladesh since 2005, according to research by the advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum.

Source
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SAUER · Jan 29, 2013

waltky said: ↑

Another fabric factory fire in Bangladesh...

Report: Investigation Ordered into Latest Bangladesh Factory Fire
January 27, 2013 - An official in Bangladesh says the government has ordered an investigation into allegations that the only emergency exit was locked at a garment factory where a fire on Saturday killed seven female workers.

See also:

Bangladesh probing if factory's 1 exit was locked
Jan 27,`13 -- Bangladesh's government is investigating allegations that the sole emergency exit was locked at a garment factory where a fire killed seven women.
Click to expand...

The bad tendency. They gave a crap that they took measures to insure their safety. But it does not correspond to the facts.

waltky · Dec 31, 2013

Bangladesh Factory Owners Face Murder Charges...

Tazreen clothing factory owners face arrest over fatal fire
Wednesday, 01 January, 2014, A Bangladesh court has ordered the arrest of the owners of a garment factory in which 111 workers died in a blaze.

Four other people were also ordered to be taken into custody after police laid charges in connection with the incident on November 24, 2012 - the country's worst-ever clothing factory fire. The court in Dhaka yesterday issued the warrants for Delwar Hossain and his wife Mahmuda Akter over the blaze at the Tazreen factory, where workers stitched clothes for Western retailers. "Dhaka's senior judicial magistrate Wasim Sheikh issued the warrants of arrest against the two fugitive owners and four other company officials for the Tazreen factory fire," prosecutor Anwarul Kabir said.

The tragedy shone an international spotlight on appalling safety conditions in an industry worth more than US$20 billion a year. The factory, which was located in the Ashulia industrial district, supplied clothes to a variety of international brands including US giant Walmart, Dutch retailer C&A and ENYCE, a label owned by US rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Delwar Hossain, owner of the Tazreen Fashions garment factory.

Kabir said the court accepted charges by police against all 13 people implicated in the fire after officers earlier this month completed a 13-month investigation into the tragedy. "The owners and 11 others have been charged with arson, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and death by negligence," Kabir said, adding that they all faced a possible maximum term of life in prison.

The six whose arrest was ordered were neither in court nor custody. Police last week said it was possibly the first time a garment plant owner had been charged over a fire at one of the nation's 4,500 factories, where fatal accidents are common. Factory owners are rarely charged over such tragedies in the sector, which is a mainstay of the impoverished country's economy, accounting to up to 80 per cent of Bangladesh's exports.

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/artic...ng-factory-owners-face-arrest-over-fatal-fire
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Margot2 · Dec 31, 2013

SAUER said: ↑

[video=youtube;KrDBkExHx9M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrDBkExHx9M[/video]
A fire swept through a garment factory on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital, killing at least 120 people, the chief of the fire brigade said on Sunday, in the worst accident for the booming industry in recent years.
The fire at the nine-story factory in the Ashulia industrial belt started on the ground floor late on Saturday and quickly spread, trapping hundreds of workers.
"This morning we have recovered 120 dead bodies and the death toll could rise," Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah, director general of the fire brigade, told reporters.
Bangladesh has around 4,500 garment factories that make clothes for brands including Tesco, Wal-Mart, JC Penney, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Kohl's and Carrefour.
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This is really horrible.. reminds me of the fire in Hamlet, NC in 1991.. They had locked the doors of a chicken processing factory to prevent theft.

SAUER · Jan 4, 2014

Margot2 said: ↑

This is really horrible.. reminds me of the fire in Hamlet, NC in 1991.. They had locked the doors of a chicken processing factory to prevent theft.
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I know some analogous episodes too. Well, the pushing idiots are worse than just idiots.

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