Bangladesh Factory Fire Kills 8 People in Dhaka

Only two weeks after more than 900 people died in an eight-storey factory collapse, police say a garment factory fire in an industrial district in Dhaka has killed at least 8 people on Wednesday night.

The fire, which swept through a factory belonging to the Tung Hal Group, a large garment exporter, occurred in the Mirpur area of the Bangladeshi capital overnight.

“It was a big fire but we managed to confine it on one floor,” Mahbubur Rahman, operations director of Bangladesh’s fire service, told AFP news agency.

He added that the victims had suffocated after rushing to a stairwell, and being overwhelmed by “toxic smoke from burnt acrylic clothing”.

Among the victims who died of suffocation was the owner of the factory, who was said to be holding a meeting in the 11-storey building. But the police and fire officials reported that that there was no worker amongst the victims as there was no overnight production.

President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufcaturers and Exporters Association, Mohammed Atiqul Islam, told Reuters news agency, “It is not clear to us how the accident happened, but we are trying to find out the cause.”

Only on Wednesday, the government announced that it had shut down 18 garment factories for safety reasons following the April 24 Rana Plaza collapse, the worst garment manufacturing disaster in the world that has seen the deaths of over 900 people.

Protests Arise Amidst the Bangladesh Building Collapse as Death Toll Rises

There was a massive protest of over a thousand workers over the deaths of many in the Bangladesh building collapse that saw the death toll rise to more than 200 on Wednesday in the city of Dhaka.

As rescuers continue to hunt for possible survivors, grief turned to anger as the workers barricaded important roads in about three industrial areas outside the capital, with the factory owners having no choice but to give the workers the day off.

Some of the workers did damage to windows and vehicles,  before the police intervened, according to Wahidul Islam, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka police.

According to Police Chief of Gazipur district, hundreds of thousands of workers occupied roads for a while, and then went their separate ways. Some had sticks in their hands chanting aloud slogans such as ‘we want the execution of the garment factory owners.’

It was a bad day for those factory owners who bluntly refused to give their employees the day off, as the workers went on the offensive, according to Police Inspector Kamrul Islam. ‘‘They were protesting the deaths of the workers in Savar. Some even wanted to donate blood to their fellow workers,’’ he added.

Interior minister, Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, told reporters at that the culprits will be punished for negligence of the fact that the building had violated construction codes, after he took a survey of the site.

‘‘Many people are still trapped in the building, which housed a number of garment factories employing hundreds of people’’, Army Brigadier General Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said.

According to the surviving workers, the building developed cracks on Tuesday evening, which led to the evacuation of thousands of workers. But, the supervisors stubbornly ordered them to go back to the production lines.

While dozens of people have been found in the Rana Plaza trapped in a room and eventually rescued, the police and the government’s CDA (Capital Development Authority), according to local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman, have dragged the building owner to court over several cases of negligence.

Bangladesh Building Collapse Leaves Dozens Dead and Several Others Trapped

Bangladesh media outlets and government officials reported that an eight-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka collapsed a few hours ago killing dozens of people instantly, with an unknown number of others feared dead in Bangladesh.

Hiralal Roy, a senior emergency ward doctor at the nearby Enam Hospital, said that the death toll is now 82. So far, at least 700 people have also been treated at the hospital where victims are being transferred.

While hundreds of people are still trapped in the rubble, a massive rescue mission is underway, according to the officials on Wednesday.

The 8-storey building, which housed several government factories, collapsed on Wednesday morning in Savar, a Dhaka suburb. The incident, which is the latest in a series of mishaps, came only five months after a Tazreen Fashions factory fire burnt alive at least 112 government workers.

An Al Jazeera correspondent in Bangladesh described the scene as one of ‘complete mayhem and chaos.’ Hundreds of people are trapped under the rubble and are still being pulled out.

She also said, ‘the army has taken over rescuing people from the disaster. The army, police, and volunteers are working collectively to pull people out of the rubble.’

‘The situation was disastrous and at least 100 people are feared trapped’, Local police chief M Asaduzzaman said.

The accident has raised unanswered questions about the safety conditions in Bangladesh, because workers revealed at the media outlets that they had been forced to come to work by the supervisors on Wednesday, even when cracks were clearly visible in the building on the previous day.

Critics have constantly blamed the Bangladesh government, factory owners and global brands for paying no attention to the protection and safe working conditions of workers, while less is being said about the little wage they are being paid.

Labor unions are close to being extinct inside these factories. The unsolved death of Aminul Islam, a labor organizer who was tortured and killed, remains a mystery.