New fire as Bangladesh mourns dead garment workers

DHAKA – Bangladesh firefighters quelled a new blaze at a garment factory on Monday as the country mourned the death of 110 workers in a weekend blaze at an apparel plant, the export industry’s worst-ever accident.

The latest fire caused widespread damage at the plant on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, but no casualties were reported after rescue teams searched the building for workers feared to have suffocated in toxic black fumes.’Most workers broke grilles in the upper floor and escaped to a safe location at an adjacent building,’ Dhaka district deputy commissioner of police Nisharul Arif told AFP.’We don’t have any casualties and have now controlled the fire, which started on the first floor where there was inflammable acrylic clothing.’Thousands of workers staged protests during the day, demanding better protection after the earlier fire Saturday night trapped more than 1 000 staff and forced many to jump from upper floors at the Tazreen Fashion factory outside Dhaka.Survivors told how workers, most of them women, tried to escape the burning factory, which made clothes for international brands including the European chain C&A and the Hong Kong-based Li & Fung company.’Workers from several factories have left their work and joined the protest. They want exemplary punishment to Tazreen owners,’ said Dhaka police chief Habibur Rahman.In Ashulia, the industrial zone where the Tazreen factory is located, hundreds of plants stayed closed on Monday as workers mourned. An official national day of mourning will be held on Tuesday.Local police chief Badrul Alam said they had opened a case of murder due to criminal negligence. Two government inquiries and the police investigation are trying to establish if the owners were to blame for the fire.’We won’t spare anyone,’ police chief Alam promised.Preparations have been made for the mass burial on Monday of the bodies of 59 workers who cannot be identified.Their remains, often burnt beyond recognition, will be laid to rest at a state graveyard in a southern suburb of Dhaka.’We are keeping the DNA samples of the dead workers so that we can identify their relatives for compensation,’ said Dhaka district police commissioner Yusuf Harunhe.Bangladesh has emerged as the world’s second-largest clothes exporter with overseas garment sales topping US$19 billion last year, or 80 percent of national exports.The sector is the mainstay of the poverty-stricken country’s economy, employing 40 percent of its industrial workforce, but work conditions are often basic and safety standards low. – Nampa-AFP