Fire kills 112 workers at Bangladesh garment-maker
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - The fire alarm: Waved off by managers. An exit door: Locked. The fire extinguishers: Not working and apparently "meant just to impress" inspectors and customers.
That is the picture survivors paint of the garment-factory fire Saturday that killed 112 people who were trapped inside or jumped to their deaths in desperation. For Bangladesh, where such factories commonly ignore safety as they rush to produce for retailers around the world, the tragedy was unusual only in scope: More than 200 people have died in garment-factory fires in the country since 2006.
About 15,000 Bangladeshi workers protested blocks from the gutted fire Monday, demanding justice for the victims and improved safety. Some 200 factories were closed for the day after the protest erupted in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, the capital.
Protesters blocked a major highway, and some threw stones at factories and smashed vehicles, but there were no arrests and no clashes with police.
Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director, said investigators suspect that a short circuit caused the fire at the factory, which was making T-shirts and polo shirts.
But the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association urged investigators not to rule out sabotage.
"Local and international conspirators are trying to destroy our garment industry," association President Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said. He provided no details.
Mahbub said it was not the fire itself but the lack of safety measures in the eight-story building that made the blaze so deadly.
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.
He said 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.
The government was unable to identify many victims because they were burned beyond recognition; they were buried Monday in a grave outside Dhaka. The government announced that Tuesday will be a day of national mourning, with the national flag flying at half-staff in honor of the dead.
Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed, and that about 100 people injured in the fire were being treated in about a dozen hospitals. Many were hurt as they jumped to escape the flames.
Survivor Mohammad Ripu said Monday that he tried to run out of the building when the fire alarm rang but was stopped.
"Managers told us, 'Nothing happened. The fire alarm had just gone out of order. Go back to work,'" Ripu said. "But we quickly understood that there was a fire. As we again ran for the exit point we found it locked from outside, and it was too late."
Ripu said he jumped from a second-floor window and suffered minor injuries.
Another surviving worker, Yeamin, who uses only one name, said fire extinguishers in the factory didn't work, "So these were meant just to impress the buyers or authority."
TV footage showed a team of investigators finding some unused fire extinguishers inside the factory.
The garment-factory fire was Bangladesh's deadliest in recent memory, but there have been several major factory fires in recent years, including one that killed 63 people in 2006 in southern Chittagong town.
Labor leaders hope outrage over the latest disaster will prompt change. Tahmina Rahman, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Federation, says the group wants the government to work harder to punish factories for safety lapses.
"The owners go unpunished and so they don't care about installing enough security facilities," she said. "The owners should be held responsible and sent to jail."
The factory in Saturday's blaze is owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group that has produced clothing for Wal-Mart, at least in the past. Neither Tazreen 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. Its factories export garments to the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, among other countries. The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.
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 what led to the rating.
Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said online documents indicating 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. The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year.
Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted or whether the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart. If a factory is rated "orange" three times in two years, 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."
In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues, and was working with its supplier factories to phase out production from buildings deemed high risk.
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 U.S. and Europe.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families and offered 100,000 takas ($1,250) to each of the families of the dead. Tazreen's owner was meeting with representatives of the group Monday afternoon.
Another fire broke out Monday in a 12-story building housing four garment factories, but the fire department said it was quickly doused and there were no casualties.
That is the picture survivors paint of the garment-factory fire Saturday that killed 112 people who were trapped inside or jumped to their deaths in desperation. For Bangladesh, where such factories commonly ignore safety as they rush to produce for retailers around the world, the tragedy was unusual only in scope: More than 200 people have died in garment-factory fires in the country since 2006.
About 15,000 Bangladeshi workers protested blocks from the gutted fire Monday, demanding justice for the victims and improved safety. Some 200 factories were closed for the day after the protest erupted in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, the capital.
Protesters blocked a major highway, and some threw stones at factories and smashed vehicles, but there were no arrests and no clashes with police.
Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director, said investigators suspect that a short circuit caused the fire at the factory, which was making T-shirts and polo shirts.
But the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association urged investigators not to rule out sabotage.
"Local and international conspirators are trying to destroy our garment industry," association President Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said. He provided no details.
Mahbub said it was not the fire itself but the lack of safety measures in the eight-story building that made the blaze so deadly.
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.
He said 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.
The government was unable to identify many victims because they were burned beyond recognition; they were buried Monday in a grave outside Dhaka. The government announced that Tuesday will be a day of national mourning, with the national flag flying at half-staff in honor of the dead.
Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed, and that about 100 people injured in the fire were being treated in about a dozen hospitals. Many were hurt as they jumped to escape the flames.
Survivor Mohammad Ripu said Monday that he tried to run out of the building when the fire alarm rang but was stopped.
"Managers told us, 'Nothing happened. The fire alarm had just gone out of order. Go back to work,'" Ripu said. "But we quickly understood that there was a fire. As we again ran for the exit point we found it locked from outside, and it was too late."
Ripu said he jumped from a second-floor window and suffered minor injuries.
Another surviving worker, Yeamin, who uses only one name, said fire extinguishers in the factory didn't work, "So these were meant just to impress the buyers or authority."
TV footage showed a team of investigators finding some unused fire extinguishers inside the factory.
The garment-factory fire was Bangladesh's deadliest in recent memory, but there have been several major factory fires in recent years, including one that killed 63 people in 2006 in southern Chittagong town.
Labor leaders hope outrage over the latest disaster will prompt change. Tahmina Rahman, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Federation, says the group wants the government to work harder to punish factories for safety lapses.
"The owners go unpunished and so they don't care about installing enough security facilities," she said. "The owners should be held responsible and sent to jail."
The factory in Saturday's blaze is owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group that has produced clothing for Wal-Mart, at least in the past. Neither Tazreen 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. Its factories export garments to the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, among other countries. The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.
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 what led to the rating.
Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said online documents indicating 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. The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year.
Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted or whether the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart. If a factory is rated "orange" three times in two years, 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."
In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues, and was working with its supplier factories to phase out production from buildings deemed high risk.
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 U.S. and Europe.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families and offered 100,000 takas ($1,250) to each of the families of the dead. Tazreen's owner was meeting with representatives of the group Monday afternoon.
Another fire broke out Monday in a 12-story building housing four garment factories, but the fire department said it was quickly doused and there were no casualties.
Yes, @Festivus I remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. Same thing happened almost 100 ago. Locked doors to prevent pilferage and extra breaks.
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There has even been a movie made about that abomination.
I don't shop at Wal-Mart because I will only buy things made in the U.S. However I can't convince the wife to do the same. Oh well.
Now India gets to relearn the same issues that this country learned 100 years ago:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
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It's also a somber reminder of the era when unions were absolutely necessary to labor in America. Â
 @Festivus My first thought, too.  It's eerie how similar the two fires were - locked doors to keep the workers in, people jumping to their deaths to escape the flames.
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If big companies manage to destroy the unions here, like they want, how soon before we're back in the same situation? Â Corporate greed always trumps the safety and needs of the workers.
@Festivus Bangladesh, but otherwise yes. History repeats itself.
"Garment factory"... Â Â More apt description, Â "sweat shop"... Â and we've had more than a few of those in this country, too... probably still do have a few... Â Sadly, as long as there are customers demanding cheap goods, there will be places like this somewhere in the world willing to supply them... and there will be more tragedies like this...
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This is just so horrible... it was hard to even look at the photos... nobody should have to die like that... Â
Love how they try to pin it on Wal-Mart - these factories make clothes for 99.9% of every retailer out there.
 @WTFWTF ~ You're right, f course...it isn't just Wal-Mart...  you can go into almost any store and find clothing and other stuff that's made in sweat-shops like this...  Â
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It isn't the stores... it's what we-the-customers are buying - cheap stuff. Â Â It's like the drug cartels... if no one was buying street drugs, the drug cartels would be out of business. Â Â And if people were not demanding cheap goods, these sweat-shops would either clean up their act, or they'd cease to exist, too. Â Â
What a senseless tragedy. Unfortunately those responsible will not be held accountable. Very heart wrenching. My heart goes out to the families of those who lost loved ones.
Good, burn to death... Why?... " produced clothing for Wal-Mart" I HATE corporations that move jobs overseas.
@FrankCastle Well, go thank a union for causing so many jobs to go overseas. If those garments were produced here, at union wages, none of us could afford them. There has to be some common ground to address the inflated US union worker wages and the slave wages in third world countries.
 @Kachina  @FrankCastle Not true. If union wages were carried across the board to other jobs as well, we'd be able to still afford these "luxuries". When a steel maker earns $18.00 an hour (as a union starting wage), there are countless other jobs that are supported by that union wage.
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Instead, as a cost saving measure, steel is now being produced overseas and being imported back here for some of our most critical infrastructure building. The $18.00 wage earner is lucky to have a job at a burger place (and not full time and not with benefits). The $3.00 shirt at WalMart made by the people killed in this fire is about all s/he can afford.
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Unions have been responsible for the standardization of the 40-hour work week, vacation and sick leave, pensions and retirement structures, education and retraining, strengthening the child labor laws, improving worker safety, assuring whistle-blower laws are supported, and on and on.
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All the while, the argument about union wages driving jobs out of the US is bunk. The middle class (and, as such, union jobs) continues to shrink. Less than 10% of the US population is a union member. This is part of the reason that you hear of unions forming in Mexico and overseas -- both to support the workforce in those countries and to continue to support their economic base.
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And, as others have said, unions are used as an excuse. The bigger reason is to avoid the health and safety laws we now take for granted. Heavy metals, for example, have been eliminated from most average jobs -- but not overseas. Heavy metals are known to cause so many terminal illnesses, nerve damage, fertility and birth defects, and on and on. But they're quick and easy to use. After all, gasoline is the best universal solvent/degreaser out there. As is TCE. Anyone who worked at ViewMaster/Ideal/Tyco knows, TCE was used to clean off "gunk" used in the manufacturing process. If you went out to the grassland swamps behind the plant many years later, you could still see the sheen from the TCE. The same is true at the Columbia Slough. The stagnant water of the Columbia Slough still has an oily sheen from the industrial solvents used and dumped into it prior to the Clean Water Act.
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China and other countries refuse to acknowledge the environmental damage these products are causing let alone what it does to the people working with them. After all, the people are replaceable. The environment? If it gets too bad, well, there's always a better, more environmentally healthy country (like the U.S.) to invade.
Investors want to know how soon it will be back up and running and producing more product....it is Christmas time ya know!
What are all the Walmart shoppers who DESPERATELY NEED stretchy-pants going to do?
What a horrible way to die. How would ignoring the alarm or locking the door benefit them in anyway? Workers are dead. Product is destroyed. Building destroyed. Families are being paid off. Doesn't make sense, even in a place like Bangladesh.
 @Lips Families are not paid-off in Bangladesh after employee tragedies.
 @August100 ''The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families and offered 100,000 takas ($1,250) to each of the families of the dead. Tazreen's owner was meeting with representatives of the group Monday afternoon.''
*From the story. Someone should follow it to the end, make sure it happens. Maybe you? It's still not enough. Here, we'd say we're a nanny nation. There, we say it's atrocious.
Well I hope everyone who shops Walmart and other retailers who sell their wares cheaper at the expense of laborers like this are happy. Rather than just spend a few more dollarson clothing and other items to bring more jobs back to the U.S.where we have safe working conditions and better pay, we are more than happy to off-shore our purchases to working conditions like this. Unfortunately, every big company is doing this leaving the U.S. consumer little choice. I wish just one corporation would stand up and say we are going to charge a little more for our product but we will assure than that every one of these products is made in the U.S. by the hard-working middle class in the country.Â
 @peckishpete As you said, often times the U.S. consumer has little choice.
It's not just the working conditions, but also how they dump chemicals and other liquids. I'd halfway bet if you took some EPA people over there and did ground samples and water samples they'd be booking the next flight out of there.
 @disgustedman Yep, I mentioned that.
 @peckishpete I agree. And for those companies who are cheap and make the decision to move their companies/industries oversees or even to Mexico, they have a moral and ethical obligation to make certain the employees working in these industries are safe, nourished, well paid and are elevated in their living situation in general. The employees should be afforded the same opportunities their US counterparts have. Additionally, environmental and safety factors in the US should be applied to any industry making a product or raw good that is being sold to the US should be held to this standard. Minimum. This abhorrent behavior is beyond excusable and it needs to stop!
 @CTWU  @peckishpete Doing that does not make the "Phil Knights" of the USA FILTHY RICH & WORSHIPED LIKE GODS....
@August100  Truth!  And you can't have Black Friday or Cyber Monday without slave labor producing in the Third World.