A catastrophic fire incident occurred at a garment producing factory in the Mirpur district of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established to improve pedestrian safety, tragically it led to injury to at least 16 pedestrians. The tragic incident raised new concerns about inadequate fire protections for the over 4 million garment workers employed globally. Unfortunately, the toll has resulted in hundreds of fatalities over the years.
The four-storey building, housing a chemical warehouse, caught fire late in the afternoon and it took firefighters three hours to extinguish the blaze. Fire service officials remain unsure which of the two fraternity houses that were involved in the incident caught fire first. The fire was not completely doused until 21:00 local time, leaving many distraught relatives outside the factory in search of their loved ones.
According to Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, the fire service director, who spoke with local media about the tragedy. He suggested victims would have died “immediately” after inhaling “very toxic gas”. This remark underscores the deep danger in laboring under unpredictable conditions where inadequate safety regulations and infrastructure prevail. These unsafe conditions have led to thousands of preventable deaths in Bangladesh’s garment industry.
The country has seen some of its deadliest industrial disasters and years. The worst of these was the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 of an eight-storey commercial building that brought about the deaths of more than 1,100 individuals. This tragedy vividly illustrates the struggle that all workers in Bangladesh are up against. Fires on this scale happen all too often, due to the lack of stringent fire safety codes.
In the aftermath of this most recent fire, the new community’s grief and anger is clear. Family members of victims stood outside the factory, anxiously trying to get news about their family members. Farzana Akhter’s father shared his grief, saying, “When I heard about the fire, I came running. I still haven’t found her….I just want my daughter back.”