The issue of workers’ and workplace safety at garment factories in Bangladesh raised its ugly head once again on Tuesday, when a massive fire broke out at the Gazipur-based Matrix Sweater Ltd.
The fire at the sweater factory that reportedly supplies H&M and J C Penney, besides injuring four garment workers and destroying goods. worth more than Tk 100 crore, raised serious questions on the safety of the garment manufacturing factories in Bangladesh. “Had the fire started even one hour later … the risk of death would have been extreme,” read a statement issued by global labour rights bodies Clean Clothes Campaign, the International Labor Rights Forum, the Maquila Solidarity Network and the Worker Rights Consortium.
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“We are extremely relieved that this fire hasn’t resulted in another tragedy on the scale of the Tazreen factory fire of 2012,” stated a coordinator at the Clean Clothes Campaign Sam Maher, adding “However, this is more [due] to luck than anything else.”
According to the deputy managing director of Matrix Sweater Ltd Mohammad Kabir Hossain, the fire started from electric short-circuits on the 7th floor of the building around 7.30 am, which was reportedly prevented from spreading to other floors of the eight-storey building due to timely intervention by the fire fighters, who rushed in to control the inferno from Tongi, Gazipur, Sreepur, Uttara and other nearby areas.
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“It is astonishing that the Alliance has Matrix Sweaters rated as ‘on track’ with safety renovations,” stated Executive Director of the Worker Rights Consortium Scott Nova, adding, “This factory has missed dozens of deadlines to eliminate fire hazards and make the structure safe, with 72 different hazards still uncorrected almost two years after inspection. Just how dangerous does a factory have to get to earn criticism from the Alliance?”
