DHAKA: A fire at a garment factory killed at least eight people yesterday in the latest disaster to hit Bangladesh’s textile industry reeling from the death of nearly 950 people in a building collapse.
The cause of the fire was not known but authorities said it broke out at about 11.30pm on the third floor of an 11-storey building housing two garment factories in Dhaka’s Darussalam district.
The owner of the Tung Hai sweater factory was among the victims, but no workers were injured as there was no overnight production, police and fire service officials said. “It was a big fire but we confined it on one floor,” Mahbubur Rahman, Operations Director of the fire service, said.
He said the victims suffocated after rushing into a stairwell and being overwhelmed by “toxic smoke from acrylic clothing”.
The dead also included four staff, two policemen and the eighth person was yet to be identified. One of the victims was a mid-ranking member of the ruling Awami League party, police said. Tung Hai said on its Facebook page that British chain Primark was among its customers.
Spain’s Inditex, whose labels include Zara, confirmed it had placed orders in the past but severed ties last June after Tung Hai’s management “did not respond accordingly” to an action plan to improve working conditions.
The fire comes as more bodies were found in the ruins of the nine-storey Rana Plaza garment factory complex that caved in on April 24 when more than 3,000 workers were on shift. Over 100 more bodies were recovered overnight, bringing the confirmed death toll to 947, according to the army. Brigadier General Siddiqul Alam Sikder said he hoped to wrap up work today and leave bulldozers to shift the remaining rubble. “We’ve still got to search the basement,” said Sikder. “Most of the bodies are now like skeletons as they are so badly decomposed.”
Shahnaj Begum, meanwhile, struggles to suppress her rage as she thumbs through banknotes given in compensation after she was left injured and jobless from the collapse of her nine-story workplace.
A single mother of two, she was on shift at Rana Plaza. Since then she has been unable to walk properly and suffered a relentless headache. She received 8,500 taka ($107) as a lump sum pay-off from the garment industry’s umbrella body. “In April, I worked 150 hours’ overtime and yet they haven’t given me a single taka,” she said after picking up her compensation from a makeshift set-up next to the ruins of the compound. “I am still injured. I still feel the pain from being hit on the head and the left side of my body is virtually paralysed,” the 30-year-old said.
Union leader Mohammad Ibrahim said the compensation being paid out was “unjust and low”, as many survivors worked way beyond the normal 48-hour week. Agencies
