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May 10th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
“They are really unfortunate,” Mamun Mahmud, deputy director of the fire
service, said Thursday.
The fire engulfed the lower floors of the 11-story factory, which had closed
for the day. The smoldering acrylic products produced immense amounts of
smoke and poison gas and the victims suffocated as they ran down the stairs,
Mahmud said.
The building appeared on first inspection to have been properly built, though
fire inspectors would conduct further checks, he said. It had two stairwells
in the front and an emergency exit in the back, he said. Those inside
probably panicked when they saw smoke and ran into one of the front
stairwells, he said. Had they used the emergency stairwell, they would have
survived, he said.
“Apparently they tried to flee the building through the stairwell in fear that
the fire had engulfed the whole building,” he said.
They also would have likely survived the slow-spreading fire had they stayed
on the upper floors, he said.
“We found the roof open, but we did not find there anybody after the fire
broke out. We recovered all of them on the stairwell on the ninth floor,” he
said.
The dead included the factory’s managing director, Mahbubur Rahman, who was
also on the board of directors of the powerful Bangladesh Garment
Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Along with him was senior police
official Z.A. Morshed and Sohel Mostafa Swapan, head of a local branch of
the ruling party’s youth league.
Independent TV, a local station, reported that Rahman had plans to contest
next year’s parliamentary elections as a candidate for the ruling party and
had been meeting friends to discuss his future when the fire broke out.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which began soon after the
factory workers went home for the day and took three hours to bring under
control. Mahmud speculated it might have originated in the factory’s ironing
section. Officials originally said the building also housed several floors
of apartments, but later said it was just a factory.
The Facebook page of the Tung Hai Group claimed it was a sprawling enterprise
with a total of 7,000 employees at its two factories and the capacity to
produce well over 6 million sweaters, shirts, pants and pajamas every month.
The group claimed it did business with major retailers in Europe and North
America.
The country’s powerful garment industry has been plagued by a series of
disasters in recent months, including a November fire at the Tazreen factory
that killed 112 and the building collapse.
More than two weeks after the building in the suburb of Savar collapsed,
workers with cranes and other heavy equipment were still pulling apart the
rubble and finding more bodies. On Friday, authorities said the death toll
had risen to 1,021 and it was unclear how many more people remained missing.
More than 2,500 people were rescued alive after the April 24 accident.
Maj. Ohiduzzaman, an army official who uses only one name, said 100
decomposing bodies have been kept at a makeshift morgue at a school and were
to be sent to hospitals in Dhaka for DNA testing to identify them.
A total of 648 bodies have so far been handed over to the families, he said.
Some of those who authorities have been unable to identify have been buried
by the government.
Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus said in an article
published in Bangladeshi newspapers Thursday that the tragedy was a “symbol
of our failure as a nation.”
“The crack in Rana Plaza that caused the collapse of the building has only
shown us that if we don’t face up to the cracks in our state systems, we as
a nation will get lost in the debris of the collapse,” he said, urging the
government and citizens to work together for reforms.
He also urged global brands not to abandon the country, saying that the
workers in the factories – which often subcontract from the well-known
brands – should be seen as de facto employees of those companies.
The European Union’s delegation to Bangladesh urged the government Wednesday
to “act immediately” to improve working conditions in the country’s garment
industry.
Abdul Latif Siddiqui, head of special Cabinet committee to inspect garment
factories that was formed days after the Rana Plaza collapse, said the
government has closed 18 garment factories in recent days for failing to
meet work and safety standards. He did not say whether the closures were
temporary or permanent.
Officials say the owner of Rana Plaza illegally added three floors and allowed
the garment factories to install heavy machines and generators, even though
the structure was not designed to support such equipment.
The owner and eight other people, including the owners of the garment
factories, have been detained.
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