DHAKA: A devastating fire ripped through a Bangladesh garment factory supplying major Western retailers, police and industry officials said yesterday, in a blaze set by workers angered over rumours of a colleague’s death in police firing.
Garments are a vital sector for the South Asian nation, whose low wages and duty-free access to Western markets have helped make it the world’s largest apparel exporter after China. But a series of deadly incidents, including a building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people in April, has sparked global concern over weak safety standards in the country’s $22bn garment industry.
There were no reports of casualties in yesterday’s fire, which gutted a ten-storey building at Gazipur, 40km north of capital Dhaka. But firefighters were battling to douse the blaze in four buildings, more than 15 hours after it had begun around midnight on Thursday, after workers finished for the day.
reuters
