Rupganj factory fire
Narayanganj fire: India, Canada deeply saddened by loss of lives
Indian High Commission in Dhaka has expressed deep shock at the loss of lives in the tragic fire in Narayanganj.
"Deeply saddened by the loss of so many lives in the tragic fire in Narayanganj," the high commission tweeted Saturday. It conveyed deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones or were injured in the fire.
Also read: Locked inside a factory without fire exit, 52 lives go up in flames
"Our prayers are with everyone affected by this tragedy," the high commission said.
Also, the High Commission of Canada is "deeply saddened" to hear of the deadly factory fire in Narayanganj.
Also read: Rupganj factory fire: Sajeeb Group chairman, 4 sons, CEO among 8 arrested
"We extend our deepest sympathies to the families who have lost loved ones and we wish a speedy recovery to those who were injured," the high commission tweeted.
At least 52 people died in a fire Thursday at a factory in Narayanganj's Rupganj, the latest industrial disaster in the country.
Rupganj fire: Sajeeb Group chairman, sons among 8 put on remand
A Narayanganj court on Saturday placed the eight people, including the chairman of Sajeeb Group, his four sons and the group CEO, on a four-day remand each following their arrest in connection with the Rupganj factory fire case.
Narayanganj Senior Judicial Magistrate Fahmida Khanam passed the order in the afternoon after a hearing as police produced the arrestees before the court seeking a 10-day remand for them, inspector Asaduzzaman told the UNB correspondent from the court.
Earlier in the day, Narayanganj police arrested Md Abul Hashem, chairman of the group, his four sons -- Hashem Bin Hashem, Tareq Ibrahim, Tawsib Ibrahim and Tanjim Ibrahim-- and its CEO Shahan Sha Azad, DGM Mamunur Rashid and head of admin Salauddin in the connection with the tragic fire in the factory owned by the group that claimed the lives of 52 people so far.
Earlier, police filed a case with Rupganj police station against the eight people and many unknown others following the massive fire in the factory, said Superintendent of Police in the district Md Zaidul Alam.
Also read: Rupganj factory fire: Sajeeb Group chairman, 4 sons, CEO among 8 arrested
Group CEO Shahan Sha Azad was arrested from the company’s head office in the capital’s Farmgate area, while Chairman Hashem from his Gulshan residence, SP Alam said.
Home minister says none will be spared after police arrest eight people over factory fire
The government will not spare any one responsible for the devastating factory fire in Rupganj, Home Minister Asaduzzman Khan said on Saturday after announcing the arrest of eight people, including the owner of the enterprise, in this connection.
The home minister was talking to reporters after visiting the burnt Hashem Foods factory, a concern of Sajeeb Group, at Bhulta under Rupganj in Narayanganj.
Police said they arrested Md Abul Hashem, chairman of the group Sajeeb Group that owns the factory, his four sons -- Hashem Bin Hashem, Tareq Ibrahim, Tawsib Ibrahim and Tanjim Ibrahim-- and its CEO Shahan Sha Azad, DGM Mamunur Rashid and head of admin Salauddin.
The eight will be produced before court later in the day, said Superintendent of Police (Narayanganj) Md Zaidul Alam.
Also read: Rupganj factory fire: Sajeeb Group chairman, 4 sons, CEO among 8 arrested
“None will be spared if their negligence is proven behind the factory fire,” the home minster said.
So far 52 workers, some of them reportedly teen-aged boys and girls, were killed in the devastating fire that tore through the seven-story factory that produced foods and beverages such as juice, cold drinks, toast biscuits and laccha semai.
ILO saddened by Rupganj factory fire, urges proper safety measures in factories
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said the latest factory fire illustrates the urgent need in Bangladesh for authorities and building owners to ensure that buildings are built and operated in compliance with national code requirements.
"If the fire safety measures required by the regulations were properly implemented, it would provide for safe evacuation of occupants in this type of emergency," ILO said on Saturday adding that thousands of workers spend the better part of their day in factories.
Read: Rupganj factory fire: Sajeeb Group chairman, 4 sons, CEO arrested
The ILO is "deeply saddened" by the tragic loss of life of at least 52 workers from a fire in the Hashem Food and Beverage factory in Rupganj area of Naranyanganj, and to see reports of underage workers among the victims.
"We extend our heartfelt condolences and solidarity with the families of the victims and others injured at this factory," it said.
The ILO has worked closely with the Government of Bangladesh, employers’ and workers’ organisations and development partners to improve working conditions in the ready-made garment (RMG) industry.
Read: Rupganj factory fire: Fire Service forms 5-member probe body
The ILO is working with the government’s labour inspectorate to enhance the effectiveness of safety inspections, and is helping with the development and implementation of an industrial safety framework that would extend the good practices applied over the past eight year in the RMG sector to all other industries.
Read: Trapped in a building with no fire exit and gates locked , workers were burn to a pulp
"This latest incident illustrates the urgency of that endeavour. The ILO will continue to work with the Government of Bangladesh and the employers’ and workers’ organisations on these efforts," it said.
The ILO hoped that this tragic accident will drive all parties involved to apply renewed vigour in addressing the safety deficits in workplaces across the country.
Locked inside a factory without fire exit, 52 lives go up in flames
A fire engulfed a food and beverage factory outside Bangladesh’s capital, killing at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door, fire officials said Friday.
The blaze began Thursday night at the five-story Hashem Foods Ltd. factory in Rupganj, just outside Dhaka, sending huge clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky. Police initially gave a toll of three dead, but then discovered piles of bodies on Friday afternoon after the fire was extinguished.
Read: Trapped in a building with no fire exit and gates locked, workers were burned to a pulp
So far 52 bodies have been recovered, but the top two floors of the factory have yet to be searched, said Debasish Bardhan, deputy director of the Fire Service and Civil Defense.
He said the main exit of the factory was locked from the inside and many of those who died were trapped.
Many workers jumped from the upper floors of the factory, and at least 26 suffered injuries, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.
Information about how many people were in the factory and how many were missing was not immediately available.
Read: Rupganj factory: Legal action against owner if negligence found, warns State Minister
“For now, we only have these details. After searching the top floors we will be able to get a complete picture,” Bardhan said.
Bangladesh has a tragic history of industrial disasters, including factories catching fire with the workers locked inside. Continuing corruption and lax enforcement have resulted in many deaths over the years, and big international brands, which employ tens of thousands of low-paid workers in Bangladesh, have come under heavy pressure to improve factory conditions after fires and other disasters killed thousands of people.
The factory that caught fire Thursday was subsidiary of Sajeeb Group, a Bangladeshi company that produces juice under Pakistan’s Lahore-based Shezan International Ltd., said Kazi Abdur Rahman, the group’s senior general manager for export.
According to the group’s website, the company exports its products to a number of countries including Australia, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Bhutan, Nepal and nations in the Middle East and Africa.
Rahman told The Associated Press by phone that the company is fully compliant with international standards, but he was not certain whether the exit of the factory was locked. According to Bangladesh’s factory laws, a factory cannot lock its exit when workers are inside during production hours.
Read: Factory fires: Bangladesh's recurring nightmare
“We are a reputed company; we maintain rules,” he said. “What happened today is very sad. We regret it.”
As the recovery effort was carried out Friday, victims in white body bags were piled in a fleet of ambulances as relatives wailed. As the heavy smoke continued to rise from the still smoldering factory, weeping family members of missing workers waited anxiously for news of loved ones outside the charred site.
Earlier, family members clashed with police as they waited overnight without any word of the fate of their loved ones.
The government ordered an investigation into the cause of the fire.
Past industrial tragedies have often been attributed to safety lapses that still plague the South Asian country despite its rapid economic growth.
In 2012, about 117 workers died when they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka.
The country’s worst Industrial disaster came the following year, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
Authorities imposed tougher safety rules after that disaster and the country’s garment industry has since become largely compliant under domestic and global watchdogs. But many other local industries fail to maintain safety compliance and the disasters have continued.
In February 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people. Another fire in Old Dhaka in a house illegally storing chemicals killed at least 123 people in 2010.
The International Labor Organization said in a 2017 report that Bangladesh’s regulatory framework and inspections “had not been able to keep pace with the development of the industry.”
Rupganj factory: Legal action against owner if negligence found, warns State Minister
Legal action will be taken against the owners of the Rupganj factory where over 50 workers died in a fire, if there is evidence of their negligence, State Minister for Labor and Employment Begum Monnujan Sufian pledged on Friday.
“A committee would be formed by the Ministry of Labor and Employment to look into the overall cause of the tragic accident. It will also the involvement of child labour in this factory. If evidence is found, action will be taken against the employer in accordance with labor law,” she said after visiting the fire site on Friday evening.
Read: Trapped in a building with no fire exit and gates locked, workers were burned to a pulp
She also said that the family of the deceased would be provided with Tk 2 lac and the injured Tk 50,000 tomorrow from the Bangladesh Workers Welfare Foundation fund under the labor ministry.
The state minister visited the injured workers at Dhaka Medical College Hospitals and inquired about their treatment.
A massive fire broke out in a seven-storey factory of Hashem Foods Ltd, a subsidiary of the Sajeeb Group, in Bhulta of Rupganj on Thursday evening.
The confirmed death toll till filing of this report stands at 52, and is expected to rise.
As more details emerged of the catastrophe, it became clear that the workers were left with no chance in the face of the raging inferno, that has been further fuelled by combustible items such as ghee, butter, oil and polybags stored on each floor.
Even so, the workers may have had a chance at escape, if only the building code had been maintained to provide an emergency exit, or the management had not implemented the medieval practice of locking the gates of the factory floors, that carried undertones of the horrific Tazreen Garments fire in 2012 that killed at least 112.
Read: Factory fires: Bangladesh's recurring nightmare
Deputy Director of the Fire Service Debashish Bardhan confirmed to UNB that rescue workers had to literally break down the locked collapsible gate on the building's 4th floor to go in and recover the bodies. That is where they found 49 of the bodies, burnt to a pulp overnight on the factory floor.
According to the information gathered from relatives, 45 workers are still missing. Most of the workers in the factory were juveniles.
A five-member probe committee has been formed to investigate the fire.Narayanganj Deputy Commissioner Mostain Billah has announced assistance of Tk 25,000 to each family of the deceased and Tk 10,000 for the treatment of the injured from the funds of the district administration.
Besides, on behalf of the factory owner, Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi Bir Pratik will make arrangements for 'compensation' to the victims.
Trapped in a building with no fire exit and gates locked, workers were burned to a pulp
Fire fighters have still not managed to extinguish the fire in a seven-storey factory of Hashem Foods Ltd, a subsidiary of the Sajeeb Group, in Bhulta of Rupganj, more than 24 hours after it first broke out on Thursday evening. The confirmed death toll till filing of this report stands at 52, and is expected to rise.
As more details emerged of the catastrophe, it became clear that the workers were left with no chance in the face of the raging inferno, that has been further fuelled by combustible items such as ghee, butter, oil and polybags stored on each floor.
Even so, the workers may have had a chance at escape, if only the building code had been maintained to provide an emergency exit, or the management had not implemented the medieval practice of locking the gates of the factory floors, that carried undertones of the horrific Tazreen Garments fire in 2012 that killed at least 112.
Deputy Director of the Fire Service Debashish Bardhan confirmed to UNB that rescue workers had to literally break down the locked collapsible gate on the building's 4th floor to go in and recover the bodies. That is where they found 49 of the bodies, burnt to a pulp overnight on the factory floor.
None of the bodies were in a recognisable state. Narayanganj Additional Deputy Commissioner (Overall) Shamim Bepari said they would be handed over to their relatives after DNA testing to identify them. They have already been sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for autopsy and DNA test.
Also read: Death toll from Rupganj factory fire jumps to 52
Death toll from Rupganj factory fire jumps to 52
The death toll from the factory fire at Rupganj, Narayanganj jumped to 52 as firefighters started tallying fatalities in the massive blaze.
“At least 49 bodies have been recovered from the debris of the building during the search operation,” said Abdullah Al Arefin, deputy assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence in Narayanganj district.
Earlier, 3 deaths from the accident were confirmed by the authorities of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) and US Bangla Medical College and Hospital Rupganj.
With the fresh ones, the death toll from the fire touched 52, said the UNB correspondent in Narayanganj.
Read: 6 of family hurt in Chattogram as cylinder leak causes fire
The massive fire that swept through the six-storey building housing a juice factory of Hashem Foods Ltd at Bhulta Karnagop in Rupganj, Narayanganj broke out at 5 pm on Thursday.
Rupganj factory fire still raging; 3 killed
At least three people were killed and 25 others injured as a massive fire broke out at Shezan Juice Factory of Hashem Foods Ltd in Bhulta Karnagop area of Rupganj in Narayanganj on Thursday.
Immediately after the incident, two deceased were identified as factory workers Mina Akhter, 40, and Shapna Rani.
Later, another worker, Mursalin, 22, who jumped from the 3rd floor, succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) around 11pm.
The fire broke out at the 7-storey building around 5 pm Thursday, and 18 units of firefighters were still struggling to contain it, said duty officer of the fire service control room Kamrul Ahsan.
Also read: Moghbazar blast: Death toll climbs to 8, fire service confirms 3
Ten of the injured were sent to the DMCH and 16 admitted to Rupganj US Bangla Medical College and Hospital, said the hospital authorities.
Md Shahadat Hossain, a duty doctor of the US Bangla Medical College, confirmed the deaths of two workers.
Some of the injured admitted to the DMCH was identified as Nahid, 23, Monjurul Islam, 25, Mohasin Hossain, 32, Abu Bakar Siddique, 40, Amena Begum, 32, Fatema Akhter, 23, Mohasin, 27 and Mazeda, 28.
Bachchu Mia, inspector in-charge of DMCH police camp, said three of the injured were shifted to DMCH's Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute as they were having breathing problems caused by smoke.
Also read: 18 die in India chemical factory fire
Abu Bakar Siddique, one of the injured, said, “We sustained injuries as we jumped in a hurry to get out of the building.”
The number of injured and deceased may rise as seven to eight thousand workers were working inside the factory, he said.
Deputy Director of Narayanganj fire service Md Abdul Al Arefin said they heard that the fire broke out during a welding accident. “An investigation is needed to find out the reason to know actually what caused the fire", he said.