A boiler explosion at a Bangladeshi garment factory killed 10 people and
injured dozens, fire officials said on Tuesday, the latest mishap to hit one of
the world's biggest garment producers.
The mishap happened late on Monday at a plant owned by Multifabs Limited,
a Bangladeshi company on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, a fire official
said.
The firm supplies knitted apparel to clients in Sweden, Denmark, Germany,
Russia, Spain, Netherlands and Britain, including to Littlewoods, one of
Britain's oldest retail brands, according to its website.
"Nine people were killed in the blast and one died in
hospital," fire service official Palash Chandra Modak said.
The company said the plant was functioning well and the boiler, procured
from Germany, had just been serviced. The factory had been shut for 10 days for
the Eid period at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and was being
readied to resume operations from Tuesday.
"This was an accident. Everything was fine," Mahiuddin Faruqui,
company chairman and managing director, told Reuters.
"The boiler was running well. After servicing when workers were
trying to restart it, it went off," he said.
Bangladesh's garment-making industry, the biggest in the world after
China's, employs 4 million people and generates 80 percent of its export
earnings.
Multifabs started operating in 1992, and reached $70 million in exports
in 2016, supplying European brands such as fashion chain Lindex, which is part
of Finnish retailer Stockmann and Aldi, Faruqui said.
Bangladesh's garment sector came under scrutiny after the collapse of the
Rana Plaza factory complex in 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, and a
fire at a garment factory in 2012 that killed 112 workers.
Activists had long criticized many retailers for failing to improve
working conditions in their supply chains, with long hours, low pay, poor
safety standards and workers not being allowed to form trade unions.
The Rana Plaza disaster sparked demands for greater safety and put the
onus to act on foreign companies sourcing clothing from Bangladesh.
Two international coalitions have been formed to help fund improvements
to building and fire safety at thousands of garment factories across
Bangladesh.
One of those, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, said fire
incidents in Bangladeshi factories fell to 30 in 2015 from 250 in 2012. The
alliance represents most North American importers of readymade garments,
including Canadian Tire Corp, Gap Inc, Sears Holdings Corp, Target Corp and
Wal-Mart Stores
INDEPENDENT INSPECTION
The Multifabs unit hit by the blast turned out 100,000 pieces of garment
a day, generating around $6 million of revenue a month, factory and operations
director Mesba Faruqui told Reuters.
He said the boiler had been working for about an hour when it exploded.
"We are surprised and saddened ... every year around twice or thrice
the boiler is serviced by our men and men from Germany," he said.
Another group representing global brands and retailers, called the Accord
on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, said an independent inspection
conducted on March 28, 2015, found that Multifabs' boiler room was not
separated by fire-rated construction.
It said in a report there were openings and "penetrations" from
its dyeing shed and that an inspector had ordered that the problems be fixed
within three months. (bit.ly/2uk8h6i)
Mahiuddin Faruqui said the company had implemented those recommendations
within that timeframe.
Chief government inspector Mohammad Abdul Mannan said his department had
inspected the Multifabs boiler a year ago and that the next inspection was due
this month.
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