20131008 Bangladesh RMG factory fire kills 9
Bangladesh Oct 09 2013 “Factories”
Dead : dead 5 to 9 Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured more than 10
RMG factory fire kills 9
Updated: 2013-10-09
Flames rage through a two-storey garment factory in Sreepur of Gazipur yesterday. Photo: Star
At least nine people were killed and 50 others injured as a devastating fire swept through a garment factory at Maona in Sreepur of Gazipur yesterday.
The dead include the company’s general manager Rashiduzzaman Mandal and two technicians — Khalil and Naim.
The six others could not be identified as their bodies were charred beyond recognition, said Ameer Hossain, officer-in-charge of Sreepur Police Station.
Sreepur upazila Chairman Iqbal Hossain Sabuj, however, said eight bodies were recovered as of 2:15am today.
The fire originated around 6:00pm in the dyeing section of Aswad Composite Mills owned by Palmal Group.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately known. Firefighters brought the flames under control around 12:45am today, fire service officials said.
Firemen recovered seven bodies from the ground floor and two from the second floor of the two-storey factory at Bariderchala.
Factory Director Emdad Hossain said 170 workers were on duty on the two floors when the fire broke out.
“Almost all of them managed to come out of the building,” claimed Emdad, who suffered injuries while rushing out of the building.
Liton, a worker, said, “I was working in one of the three rooms of the dyeing section. Around 6:00pm, I saw a flame behind me and shouted.”
Soon he and his fellow workers rushed downstairs.
Minutes later, the blaze spread to nearby chemical store on the first floor and in no time it engulfed the two floors, Liton added.
Around 15 minutes later, a boiler on the ground floor exploded, further feeding the flames.
Abu Zafar, station officer of Gazipur Fire Station, told The Daily Star that the blaze was brought under control around 12:45am today.
Eleven fire fighting units of the Fire Service and Civil Defence rushed around 7:30pm to the spot to tame the fire, said Kazi Nazmuzzaman, duty officer at its control room in Dhaka.
Contacted over the phone around 12:40am today, Nafiz Shikder said 2.5 lakh square feet of the three units were affected by the fire.
“The annual export of the group is worth $250 million,” Shikder said. But he declined to name the buyers and the retailers for which his factory makes clothing items.
“I will hold a press conference in the morning [this morning] and tell the media everything.”
Yesterday’s fire occurred at a time when the country is still reeling from the deadly Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24 at Savar, where 1,132 garment workers were killed and the Tazreen Fashions fire at Ashulia that left 112 workers killed on November 24 last year.
After the two deadliest garment disasters, the international community warned Bangladesh over poor labour rights and poor working conditions in factories.
In the wake of the incidents, the US government suspended the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for Bangladesh in June while the EU has also kept the country’s GSP status under observation for one year.
Bangladesh exports garment products worth more than $5 billion to the US market and nearly $12 billion to the EU market.
Garment sector contributes nearly 80 percent of the total export earnings of the country a year, employing 3.6 million workers in more than 5,000 factories.
Last Modified: 5 days ago
Websource:The Daily Star
http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/rmg-factory-fire-kills-9/