Clothes factory fire claimes 21 lives

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 26th February, 2010

In another chilling reminder of the price some have to pay for the clothes worn in the west, around 21 people have been killed and a further 50 injured in a fire that raged through a clothes factory near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

The 21 garment workers died of suffocation, and from injuries sustained in the stampede as workers tried desperately to leave the burning seven-story building.

The fire had quickly become out of control, and it took firefighters two hours to put out the blaze, this according to officials at the Fire Service and Civil Defense.

Of the victims, 15 were women.

On the Web site for the Garib & Garib company, the fire is not yet mentioned, but there is a statement insisting that “The Work environment of these facilities is well-lit and ventilated, with fire extinguishers and emergency evacuation plans, trained up firefighter & first aid team”, which suggests safety procedures were either not properly in effect or broke down for as-yet unknown reasons.

Officials could not immediately ascertain the cause of the fire, but said a three-member committee had been established to investigate.

Deaths at clothes factories in Bangladesh are frequent because of sub-standard safety laws and ineffective labour policies.

Garib & Garib say on their Web site that their main export market is the US, EU and Canada.

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