Garment fire kills 231 in 15 years
Staff Correspondent
At least 231 garment workers died and more than 1,100 were injured in fire-related incidents including Thursday night's fire at Narayanganj since 1990, according to the news items published in the dailies.It is alleged that most of the garment factories lack fire-preventive equipment and those who have hardly take proper safety measures. Working in a garment factory is highly risky, but the authorities seem apathetic about it and workers have taken it as a fact of their struggling life. The authorities responsible for ensuring a safe atmosphere for thousands of garment workers seem reluctant to take actions against factory owners failing to maintain basic safety measures. The owners getting 'preferential' treatment as entrepreneurs of the largest foreign currency earning sector in Bangladesh tend to ignore safety rules such as keeping heat and smoke detectors and an alternative electricity system. Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) law making it mandatory for the factories to have an emergency or fire exit to prevent casualties is also grossly ignored.
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