Garment fire and unanswered questions

The devastating fire at the Ha-meem Group's sportswear factory at Ashulia of Savar has added yet another sad episode to the unending series of miseries and tragedies in the star-crossed garment industry. The blaze, the cause of which is still under probe, has taken its huge toll of 26 lives and injuries to at least 100 people.
We express our deepest condolence for the dead and commiserate with the bereaved families. At the same time, we would urge the owner of the garment factory, the apex body for the industry and the government to arrange adequate compensations for the families that have lost their beloved ones as well as sole bread earners.
While writing this editorial on the victims of another fire-tragedy at a garment factory, we wonder, how many more such tragedies this highest export earning sector will have to sustain? How many more years will the hapless garment workers have to wait to finally find a safer workplace to do their job?
Strangely, piecing together the circumstances of each such garment fire, one would find more or less a familiar pattern. As reported, some surviving workers of the burnt factory said that they found the security men had closed the collapsible gates at the staircase by which they could escape. Many workers even complained that the front doors of the factory rooms under fire were also closed, a situation that forced them either to jump through the window or climb down water pipes to safety. However, unlike in the past cases of garment fire in which victims were mostly burnt to death, the overwhelming number of the casualties at the Ha-meem group's garment unit were due to fall from the 10th and 11th floors of the 11-storey building.
However, the factory authorities denied any closure of the exit gates. The story is familiar even with the in-house preparedness of the factory to fight fire. Though in this case, the authorities claimed that they were equipped to fight fire and that the workers, too, were familiar with the necessary drills, the workers spoke in the negative. Similarly, about the cause of fire, while some are blaming it on a possible electric short-circuit, some among the factory management are quick to point at an act of sabotage.
We would be waiting for the findings of the probe committees constituted to look into the fire to come out. But the nagging question will continue to pester us all as to when would our garment industry reach the desired standard of safety to obviate such tragedies and own responsibility for any such unintended hazard.