9 years of Tazreen Fashions Fire: The cost of non-compliance
The Tazreen Fashions fire, one of the nation's deadliest industrial incidents, was an eye-opener for the garment sector, showing that the cost of non-compliance in business operations was very high.
On this day exactly nine years ago, 112 workers were killed and 90 severely injured when the devastating fire broke out at an eight-storey building housing a garment factory at Ashulia, some 35 kilometres north of the capital Dhaka. Synthetic fabrics and highly flammable chemical products stockpiled on different floors and staircases enabled the fire to spread quickly, generating plumes of suffocating black smoke.
The screaming workers kept running from one to end to another to get as far away as possible from the fiery blaze.
But some guards had kept a number of exits locked in an apparent attempt at preventing theft of goods by workers. This effectively trapped the victims, robbing them of any chance to escape the deadly smoke and flames.
Some tried to break the walls but could not. A few who did manage to escape by jumping off a window suffered severe injuries from the impact of the fall.
Some survived climbing to the top floor crossing the thick smoke engulfing the staircases.
The next day revealed a queue of charred bodies, hapless victims who had been trying to get to the window. Remains revealed victims trapped on the second and first floors.
Since then, the garment sector has undergone massive reforms at strengthening workplace safety and improving the standard of business operations maintaining compliance to regulations.
The 2012 fire also brought down Tuba Group, the mother company of Tazreen Fashions. Tuba Group owner Delwar Hossain was jailed for the non-compliance.
The year preceding the fire, he had exported garment items worth Tk 500 crore employing over 10,000 workers in his five factories. The fire led to him losing almost all of his factories, assets and business.
Now out on bail from the High Court, he is working on sub-contracts for the local markets running a small factory at Badda employing 125 workers.
"I am running this factory only to survive although I am hopeful that I will be able to turn around as an entrepreneur again in future as I know the business very well," said Hossain.
Making headlines globally for the devastating fire, he has been trying to reemerge as an entrepreneur paying back bank loans and settling insurance claims worth Tk 26.46 crore.
"I am hopeful that the insurance company will settle the claim as soon as possible as a court case is going on," said Hossain.
He said though his properties had an alleged value of more than Tk 150 crore, which was enough to pay back a Tk 100 crore bank loan, most were mortgaged with banks.
"As a result, I could not sell the assets for meeting my liquidity crisis," Hossain told The Daily Star over the phone.
He says he wants to restart business retrofitting the Tazreen Fashions factory building, burnt and left abandoned for nine years.
Hossain opened Tazreen Fashions in 2004 and attained huge business sub-contracting from 2009 to 2011. In total, he said to have exported Tk 2,000 crore worth of garment items from the Tazreen Fashion factory.
"It will not be easy like earlier as he will have to follow the rules of business strictly and pay back bank loans," said Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
The BGMEA will also scrutinise all his issues seriously if he wants to come to business after settling all his disputes, as the sector had to face a severe image crisis for the fire, he said.
"If he follows the law of the land, he can come back."
Bangladesh had to face a lot criticism due to non-compliance. However, the garment sector can now claim to have the safest workplaces in the world for the subsequent remediation, Azim said.
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