Another Deadly Industrial Accident In Bangladesh

[HuffingtonPost]

DHAKA, May 9 (Reuters) - Eight people were killed when a  fire swept through a clothing factory in Bangladesh, police and  an industry association official said on Thursday, as the death  toll from the collapse of another factory building two weeks ago  climbed above 900.                

The fire, in an industrial district of Dhaka, comes amid  global attention on safety standards in Bangladesh's booming  garment industry following the catastrophic collapse of Rana  Plaza, on the outskirts of the city, in the world's deadliest  industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984.                

"It is not clear to us how the accident happened, but we are  trying to find out the cause," Mohammad Atiqul Islam, president  of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters  Association (BGMEA), told Reuters.                

On Wednesday the Bangladesh government said it had shut down  18 garment factories for safety reasons following the April 24  collapse of Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories  making clothes for Western brands. Six were cleared to re-open  on Thursday after inspectors issued safety certificates.                

Salvage teams were still pulling bodies from the rubble of  the Rana Plaza complex in Savar, around 20 miles (30 km)  northwest of Dhaka, and on Thursday a spokesman at the army  control room coordinating the operation said the number of  people confirmed to have been killed had reached 912.                

Roughly 2,500 people were rescued from the building,  including many injured, but there is no official estimate of the  numbers still missing.                

The government has blamed the owners and builders of the  eight-storey complex for using shoddy building materials,  including substandard rods, bricks and cement, and not obtaining  the necessary clearances.                

Bangladesh's garment industry, which accounts for 80 percent  of the poor South Asian country's exports, has seen a series of  deadly accidents, including a fire in November that killed 112  people.                

The latest fire, in an 11-storey building in the Mirpur  industrial district, broke out at a factory belonging to the  Tung Hai Group, a large garment exporter.                

"The factory was closed and all the workers had left the  premises an hour earlier," said fire service official Bhazan  Sarker.                

A fire service official and BGMEA president Islam said the  Bangladeshi managing director of the company and a senior police  officer were among the dead. The others killed were friends and  personal staff of the factory boss, officials said.                

Tung Hai Group says on its website that it has more than  1,000 employees and its customers include major Western  retailers including Britain's Primark, and Inditex Group of  Spain. It makes products including cardigans, jumpers and  pyjamas.

Via: HuffingtonPost