Fire hits second Bangladesh garment factory

A fire has broken out in a 12-storey building housing four different garment factories in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, police say, just days after a blaze killed at least 110 textile workers in a different facility.
Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from the scene, said the area where Monday’s fire broke out is densely populated and there were fears the fire could spread to nearby buildings.
“I can see people on the roof waiting to be rescued and on the ground floor there’s still a fire,” he said.
“Fire fighters are trying to extinguish it but the problem with that is that there are raw inflammable materials that are being stocked and this is feeding the fire.
“It’s a very chaotic scene here.”
He said many workers coming out of the building were angry, because the fire happened just two days after mass casualties occurred in another factory fire.

Poor safety measures
In Saturday’s incident, fire raced up the floors of a garment factory with no emergency exits. Some of the victims jumped from the eight-story building where they made clothes for major global retailers.
Investigators suspect that a short circuit caused the fire, according to Major Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director.
The factory is owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd, a subsidiary of the Tuba Group. The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients also include Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website.
The Tazreen factory, which employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.
An assessment of Tazreen conducted for Walmart last year rated the company as a “high risk”, but the retailer said on Monday it did not know whether it was still buying products made at the factory.
Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the prime minister, expressed shock at the loss of so many lives.
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.
The association’s acting president, Siddiqur Rahman, said on a late-night talk show early on Monday that Tazreen’s owner was to meet group representatives later in the day.
“We will discuss what other things we can do for the families of the dead,” he said on Rtv, a private television station. “We are worried about what has happened. We hope to discuss everything in detail in that meeting.”
Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20bn from exports of garment products, mainly to the US and Europe.

Source: Al Jazeera And Agencies