Rise in fire toll is feared in Bangladesh

People console a woman Sunday whose relative was killed in a fire at a garment factory Saturday outside Dhaka, Bangladesh.
People console a woman Sunday whose relative was killed in a fire at a garment factory Saturday outside Dhaka, Bangladesh.

— Fire raced up the floors of a Bangladeshi garment factory with no emergency exits, killing at least 112 people, some of whom jumped from the eight-story building where they made clothes for major global retailers.

photo

AP

A Bangladeshi police officer walks between rows of burned sewing machines in a garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday. At least 112 people were killed in a fire late Saturday at the multistory factory.

Investigators suspect that a short circuit caused the fire Saturday night outside the capital, Dhaka, said Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, the Fire Department operations director.

The eight-story factory is owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group, which makes products for Wal-Mart, IKEA and other companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Firefighters recovered at least 100 bodies from the factory and 12 more people died at hospitals after jumping from the building to escape the fire, Mahbub said Sunday.

“Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower,” Mahbub said.

Bangladesh media reported that up to 124 people were killed in the fire.

Army soldiers and paramilitary border guards were deployed to help police keep the situation under control as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of factory workers gathered at the scene, Mahbub said. He would not say how many people were still missing.

Tazreen was given a “high risk” safety rating after a May 16, 2011, audit conducted by an ethical sourcing assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the Tuba Group’s website. It did not specify the conditions or violations that led to the rating.

A spokesman for Wal-Mart said online documents indicating that the factory received an orange or “high risk” assessment after the May 2011 inspection and a yellow or “medium risk” report after an inspection in August 2011 appeared to pertain to the factory where the fire occurred.

The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year. Spokesman Kevin Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted, or if the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart.

But the International Labor Rights Forum, which tracks fires in the Bangladesh garment industry, said documents and logos found in the debris indicated that the factory produced clothes for Wal-Mart’s Faded Glory line and other American and foreign companies.

If a factory is rated “orange” three times in a two-year period, Wal-Mart won’t place any orders for one year. The May 2011 report was the first orange rating for the factory.

“Our thoughts are with the families of the victims of this tragedy,” the retailer said in a statement. “While we are trying to determine if the factory has a current relationship with Wal-Mart or one of our suppliers, fire safety is a critically important area of Wal-Mart’s factory audit program and we have been working across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and training in Bangladesh.”

There was no indication whether the violations had been fixed since the May inspection. Neither Tazreen’s owner nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.

The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients include Wal-Mart, Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website. The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, makes polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe.

In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said that “fire safety continues to be a key focus for brands and retailers sourcing from Bangladesh.” Wal-Mart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues.

Mahbub said firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor of the factory alone. He said most of the victims had been trapped inside the factory, located just outside of Dhaka, with no emergency exits leading outside the building.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives.

Mahbub said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors.

“The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor,” Mahbub said. “So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building.” Information for this article was contributed by Vikas Bajaj, Julfikar Ali Manik and Stephanie Clifford of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 11/26/2012

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