RANA PLAZA DISASTER

On 24 April 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
which housed five garment factories, killed at least 1,132 people and injured more
than 2,500. These disasters, among the worst industrial accidents on record, awoke
the world to the poor labour conditions faced by workers in the ready-made
garment sector in Bangladesh. For some of the lowest wages of the world, millions
of people, most of them girls and women, are exposed every day to an unsafe work
environment with a high incidence of work-related accidents and deaths, as well as
occupational diseases. Most of the factories do not meet standards required by
building and construction legislation. As a result, deaths from fire incidents and
building collapses are frequent.. Given the hazardous working conditions and the
high risk of exposure to employment injury in this sector, the provision of adequate
benefits is of critical importance in compensating injured workers for the loss of
earnings they are likely to suffer, and to ensure that they have access to the medical
and associated care required by their condition. Access to some form of financial
compensation or support for dependent family members who lose their
breadwinner can also make the difference between life in dire poverty, where
children and older people are forced to work to survive, and life at or just above
subsistence level. At present, the only form of financial protection available to
workers and their dependants is set out in the labour code, which requires
employers, when liable, to provide specified payments to injured workers or
survivors. A recent amendment to the labour code requires employers to insure
themselves against liability, but no such obligation was in force at the time when
Rana Plaza collapsed. The amounts of compensation envisaged are also very low
and take the form of lump sums, offering inadequate protection to beneficiaries
against ill health and poverty in the medium and long term. The system is also
plagued by major practical application issues. Despite the magnitude of the losses
suffered by the victims of the Rana Plaza accidents and their survivors, no
compensation was paid in application of the labour code provisions on employer
liability. A small number of global buyers and local players made some payments
to victims in the months following the disasters, albeit on a voluntary basis.

DEPOT FIRE IN SITAKUNDA

Fire broke out at a container facility on the night of 4 June 2022 at Sonaichari
union, Sitakunda upazila, 40km from the port city of Chattogram (formerly
Chittagong). The fire triggered multiple explosions, killing at least 41 people,
including 12 firefighters, and injuring at least 300 others,(Al Jazeera 05/06/2022)
Explosions shattered window glasses in nearby buildings. Tremors from the
explosion reached people living within a 4–5km radius of the accident site. As per
reports, toxic fumes covered the accident site and made several firefighters ill.
Villagers living in the neighbourhood of the depot reported burning eyes.As at 7
June morning, the fire was still burning intermittently in 28 containers. Some
containers were known to contain chemicals, but it remained unclear which of the
containers these were, making operations dangerous.The fire department
confirmed the presence of a large volume of hydrogen peroxide at the depot. As
per media reports, the hydrogen peroxide was stored under a tin shed Hydrogen
peroxide is not combustible but can trigger or support combustion. It can also
cause spontaneous combustion when it comes in contact with organic material
Authorities have confirmed the presence of more chemicals close to the fire
site .No rapid needs assessment has yet been published, and the number of people
in need remains unclear. There are reports of people leaving neighbouring villages.

TAZREEN FASHION
in November 2012 which killed 112 workers was the first time that the national
stakeholders and the international community paid serious attention. The fire,
presumably caused by a short circuit, started on the ground floor of the nine story
factory, trapping the workers on the floors above. Because of the large amount of
fabric and yarn in the factory, the fire was able to quickly spread to other floors,
complicating firefighting operations. The fire burned for more than seventeen
hours before the firefighters were successful in extinguishing it.The day of the fire
was just like any other day. There was a fire alarm and all got out of their seats but
did not expect it was an actual fire.Workers heard fire alarms in the factory
sometimes but management were never serious; they just sounded it but they were
not asked to go outside. Sometimes they said to their management that they were
not maintaining drills properly because they were not practicing leaving the factory
but they said it was not important. After about five minutes we saw smoke.
Everything started to go dark. They ran to the female stairs and found fire. Then
they ran to the male stairs and found fire. The main exit was locked.. Workers ran
to the sample room and broke the windows and jumped onto the roof of the
building next to the factory, then onto the ground. Workers don’t know where the
managers were. It seems they got out through the main exit, locked it and left.
Nobody really knows who locked the doors because they couldn’t see any faces; it
was just dark and full of smoke. This fire continued till the early morning of 25th
November. The second floor collapsible gate was locked and the highest numbers
of dead bodies(69) were recovered from this floor.

HASHEM FOOD FACTORY

At least 52 workers have died after a fire broke out at the Hashem Foods factory in
Narayanganj, some 16 kilometers southeast of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
Many of victims were teenagers employed in violation of labor laws, who died
because the gates to their workplace were locked. Laiju Begum told the BBC that
her 11-year-old nephew worked at the factory. “We realised, after seeing how big
the fire was, that he is probably dead," Begum said. "We heard the door of the
floor where my nephew worked was padlocked.” One survivor was 13-year-old
Halima Akhter from Palgaon village in Netrokona district, who jumped from the
second floor of the building when it caught fire. Asked why her daughter was
working at such a young age, Shahana Akhter, her mother told BDNEWS24: "The
poor know no age." (The International Labor Organization estimates that 1.2
million children work in dangerous occupations in Bangladesh.) Firefighters who
fought the blaze say that the death count was exacerbated by multiple factors: a
pipeline system that carried edible oil; the large quantity of paper and plastic raw
materials stored on the premises; and not least, the fact that the gates on the third
floor were locked making it impossible for workers to flee. At least 25 perished on
that floor. Neither did any manager of mine do so," Hashem told the Daily Star
newspaper, days before his arrest. "The fire may have been a result of workers'
carelessness. Maybe some worker did not put out his cigarette before throwing it.”
"The owner of this factory has the cheek to make an asinine remark that he did not
light the fire," wrote the newspaper’s editorial staff, after the interview. "Surely, he
did not light the fire. But nevertheless, he sent them to their deaths by locking all
the gates of entry and exit.“The rest of the factories have firefighting systems, but
they do not meet safety standards. The workers cannot fight flames at all like this.”
Ironically, the factory in Naraynganj had been visited by the Department of
Inspection for Factories and Establishments, just a month before the fire. “The
combination of child labor and workers locked into an unsafe factory has led to a
particularly heartbreaking and distressing result," Valter Sanches, general secretary
of the Industrial Global Union, said in a press release. It is an independent, legally
binding agreement between 120 fashion brands sourcing from Bangladesh and
trade unions to work towards a safe garment and textile industry, and is managed
by the Ready-Made Garments Sustainability Council.in the Bangladesh Labour
Act of 2006, say experts. "Most corporations being sued for compensation under
the labour law, instruct their team of lawyers to prolong the litigation period as
much as possible," writes Taqbir Huda, a researcher at Bangladesh Legal Aid and
Services Trust (BLAST) who coordinates a project called Justice for All Now.
"Family members of workers killed in industrial establishments who dare to
exercise their right to seek compensation against an industrial employer in labour
courts become tired out to the point where they feel compelled to abandon the
case." The death toll in Narayanganj ranks as the one of the worst industrial
disasters in South Asia in recent decades.

FIRE AT TAMPACO FOILS LIMITED

They were already in a holiday mood as it was their last working day before the
weeklong Eid vacation. But it turned out to be the last day in the lives of at least 24
people, mostly workers, as they were killed in a massive fire triggered by
explosions at a packaging factory in Tongi of Gazipur yesterday.
Around 50 suffered injuries when flames tore through Tampaco Foils Limited's
factory in BSCIC industrial area of Tongi, close to the capital, at the start of a new
shift. "The workers were preparing to go to their village homes as the factory is
going into Eid holidays. But everything got devastated," said Shahidul Islam, a
staff in the engineering section of the factory. Of the dead, 12 have been identified
said the fire originated from boiler explosion.
However, MA Mannan, chief inspector of boilers, claimed that the cause of the fire
was not boiler explosion. The raging blaze reduced the factory to ruins as parts of
the upper floors of the four-storey building caved in. Black plumes of smoke from
the building spiralled upward, engulfing the area in the initial hours of the incident,
the biggest industrial disaster since 2013 when the Rana Plaza building collapsed.
Police said about 100 people were in the factory at the time of the incident; the
workers of the morning shift were taking charge from night-shift colleagues. The
plant runs in three shifts round the clock -- eight hours each. The fire, which began
at 6:05am, could not be extinguished till 2:00am today. Fire officials said the
explosion was huge and the fire triggered by the blast spread quickly because
flammable chemicals and oil drums were stored at the factory.The company
manufactures paper backed foils, plug wrap paper, cigarette paper, filter tipping
paper and printed, metalised and laminated films for different local industrial units
as well as multinational organizations. The explosion at the factory was so strong
that it caused large chunks of debris to fly in all directions, said locals. Even some
windowpanes at a few nearby buildings were broken off due to the impact of the
blast, they added. "Waving their hands through the windows of the factory, the
workers were crying for help but those who were outside could not go near the
building due to huge flames," said Gul Chan, a housewife of a nearby tin-shed
house.

HA-MEEM GROUP
At least 26 people were killed and 100 more injured when a fire swept through Ha-
Meem Group's sportswear factory at Narsinghapur in Ashulia. Of the deceased,
three suffocated while the rest died falling from the 11-storey factory trying to
escape the inferno.. The fire started in the finishing section on the ninth floor
around 1:00pm. Most of around 5,000 workers of the factory were out for lunch at
that time, Lt Col (retired) Delwar Hossain, deputy general manager of Ha-Meem
Group, told After efforts for over seven hours, firefighters doused the flames
around 8:30pm,. It took time to put out the fire because of fabrics inside the
factory,. Neither the Ha-Meem officials nor the fire brigade could say what caused
the blaze. DG Shahidullah said the factory had enough fire-extinguishers, but the
workers were not trained enough to use those. The bodies of the three who died
inside were recovered from the ninth and tenth floors of the factory in the evening.
Witnesses said four out of seven exit staircases were closed. Desperate to flee the
heat and smoke, some workers jumped off the windows, while some fell trying to
get to the ground using rolls of cloth. Many others were injured hurtling down the
stairs. Survivors said around 300 workers were either having lunch on the top-floor
canteen or working on the ninth floor.. We then ran to the staircases but failed to
go down for excessive heat. Many fell to the ground trying to get down this way.
Sample-section worker Mujibor Rahman said all three emergency exits and exits
for women were closed and a few could not get out through the three other
staircases. Hundreds of people thronged the spot looking for their loved ones.
Many were looking for their friends and relatives at nearby hospitals.. Bangladesh
Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) formed three-
member committee to investigate the fire. BGMEA President Abdus Salam
Murshedy told that families of each of the deceased workers would be given Tk 1
lakh as compensation from the BGMEA and Tk 1 lakh from Ha-Meem Group.
CHOWDHURI KNITWEAR AND GARMENTS FACTORY
A fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh killed at least 45 people, most of them in
the stampede to flee the four-storey building in an industrial town near the capital,
the police said yesterday. Most of the dead were women and children. More than
100 others were taken to hospital with injuries after the fire and stampede on
Saturday night at Chowdhury Knitwear Garments factory in Shibpur, 25 miles east
of Dhaka. Some of the injured were in critical condition and the death toll could
rise, a police official said. At least 900 workers, many of them women, were at the
factory when the fire broke out on the fourth floor. They scrambled to get out
down narrow stairwells, and many of them fell on each other, officials said.
Nearly all the victims died in the stampede and many of the injured had jumped out
windows trying to escape, Sitish Ranjan, the area's chief government administrator,
said in a telephone interview. Witnesses told newspapers that workers were
trapped because the only exit door on the ground floor was locked for security
reasons and had to be broken open by firefighters. The factory owner, Sagar
Chowdhury, disputed their accounts. He said the fire was caused by a short circuit
on the fourth floor. Bangladesh has nearly 2,000 garment factories, employing at
least 1.5m workers, most of them young women. Children also work in the
factories.

GARIB AND GARIB SWEATER FACTORY

Fire broke out at Garib and Garib Sweater Factory at Bhogra in Gazipur sadar
upazila just one and a half months after a devastating blaze left 21 workers burnt to
death and many others injured. At least 10 workers and fire fighters were wounded
in the fire this time. Fire service officials said a large number of sweaters, and
machinery were gutted. The fire originated from the third floor of the six-storey
factory building around 1:30pm and quickly spread to the second and fourth floors.
Deputy Director of local fire service .Recurrence of fire at the factory angered its
workers, and they beat up its knitting section in-charge Abdul Mannan. The
workers later demonstrated in front of the factory building and barricaded Dhaka-
Mymensingh highway for about an hour forcing several hundred vehicles to
remain stranded. Workers present in the factory at the time said they had heard a
big bang before the fire broke out in knitting section located on the third floor and
black smoke engulfed the entire floor.
 KTS TEXTILE FACTORY
At least 54 workers were killed and over 100 seriously injured when a textile
factory burned down in the Bangladeshi port city of Chittagong on February 23.
Many of those killed or badly injured were prevented from escaping because
factory guards had locked the main entrance and other gates to prevent theft and
monitor the 600, mainly young women, working the night shift. The four-storey
factory was a death trap, like many garment and textile factories in Bangladesh.
The fire began around 7 p.m. when a first floor boiler exploded, probably due to
the explosion of a generator. Large quantities of chemicals and stacks of yarn on
the floor fuelled the fire. With many of the gates locked and the tiny stairwell
jammed with people and factory goods, some workers were jumping out of
windows in an attempt to escape the fumes and fire—in some cases to their deaths.
Farzana, a survivor who obtained treatment at the Chittagong Medical College
Hospital told. “When the fire erupted, I was working on the second floor. One of
the two collapsible gates on the floor was padlocked. Finding it impossible to come
out through the milling crowd at the other gate, I jumped out through a window on
the roof of a nearby two-storey building,” she said. “Some local people standing on
the rooftop of that building broke open the window and helped us out”.

SHAN FABRICS
The fire that broke out at a garment factory called Shan Fabrics at the Jhaochar
area of Meghna Industrial City in Sonargaon, Narayanganj has been brought under
control. The fire was brought under control at 7:30 pm, confirmed Sonargaon fire
service station official Sujon Kumar Halder. Earlier, the fire broke out at the
garment factory at around 3:45 pm. It is learned that the fire gutted various units of
the factory. No casualties were reported due to the holiday.is believed that the fire
may have started from an electrical short circuit. The fire came under control
around 7:30 pm. Later, damping work was done.Eyewitness Abul Kashem said he
used to play regularly in the field around the factory. Shan Fabrics suddenly caught
fire with a loud noise.The extent of the damage was not known. The amount of
damage will be determined by talking to the owner’s party.
 FIRE AT PLASTIC FACTORY
A At least five people were killed after a fire broke out at a plastic factory in
northern Bangladesh, marking the latest deadly industrial accident in a country
where safety conditions at factories have been under the scanner. Emergency
services were notified around noon of a fire at a factory that employed around 70
people in Bogura, local fire services chief Abdul Malek told EFE. “Most of them
(workers) managed to escape. We searched the factory two hours after the fire was
doused and found five bodies inside,” he said. However, the casualty toll was not
final and Malek said that others may have been injured. As per primary evidence,
the fire may have originated in the factory’s recycling machine and later spread
quickly across the premises, the official said. Fires and other industrial accidents
are common in Bangladesh. a country with poor safety measures where such
accidents often result in high death tolls.

H&M FACTORY
At least 21 workers died and 50 were hurt when a fire swept through a Bangladeshi
factory making clothes for budget retailer H&M and other firms as they worked at
night to fulfil orders. The blaze at the which makes cardigans and jumpers for the
Swedish fashion chain – follows repeated concerns by a British charity about fire
safety at factories making garments for Western shops. The fire started at about
9pm at the factory at Gazipur, 50km north of the capital Dhaka trapping dozens of
workers who were knitting jumpers.Thirteen of the dead were women, according to
doctors. Clothing factories in Bangladesh are prone to fires as a result of poor
safety standards. War on Want found poor safety at six factories supplying budget
clothes lines for Primark, Asda and Tesco in a report, which alleged that the
factories – which it declined to identify for fear of reprisals against workers – were
missing fire extinguishers, emergency exits and fire alarms and did not practise fire
drills.