Bangladesh factory fire: At least 23 killed in Tongi

Almost 23 people died and 70 were injured after a huge fire broke out in a garment packaging factory outside Dhaka on Saturday, police and witnesses said.

Firefighters try to extinguish the fire at a packaging factory in the industrial zone of Tongi on Saturday.

In November 2012, at least 111 workers were killed when a devastating fire engulfed a nine-storey garment factory in the Ashulia industrial area, outside the capital Dhaka.

Senior firefighting official Anis Mahmud said his workers toiled through the night to douse the blaze but the structure was still too unsafe to enter properly to search through the debris.

At least 20 people were killed and dozens more injured in a fire Saturday at a packaging factory in Bangladesh, according to multiple news reports.

The latest incident has once again raised questions of safety standards at workplace not only in Bangladesh but other South Asian countries as well.

BD struggles to search factory after deadly fire was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on September 12, 2016 and was last updated on September 12, 2016.

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a group of 28 mostly North American companies led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Gap Inc., which has been working to improve building and fire safety at almost 700 Bangladeshi garment factories, said in a statement that the Tampaco Foils factory fire underscored the need to expand current safety initiatives.

Jahirul Islam, a director with the fire service department, said on Monday the Bangladeshi army had joined search efforts at the site of the fire.

The company, Tampaco Foils Ltd., lists Nabisco and local affiliates of British American Tobacco and Nestle as clients on its website.

The location of the boiler in the building is also being investigated, he said.

The group adds: “We urge the government of Bangladesh to take further steps to implement the National Action Plan commitments to improve factory safety, and to ensure that such work extends beyond the garment industry to improve workplace safety in all enterprises of Bangladesh”.

The Rana Plaza disaster led to worldwide calls to improve factory safety in the country.

Fatalities in Bangladeshi factories – which mostly produce clothing, packaging and textiles – are common due to a lax implementation of regulations.