Posted on 02/24/2006 10:10:46 PM PST by HAL9000
Bangladesh: a building of five floors breaks down, feared victims
DACCA - a building of five stages sheltering a textile workshop, stores and offices broke down Saturday in the capital of Bangladesh, Dacca, making fear many victims, one learned from police source.
Many employees worked in the textile workshop at the time of the accident, indicated to AFP the assistant prefect of police force of Dacca, Obasidur Rahman.
"Of the police officers, the firemen and voluntary are on the spot in order to help the people taken in the debris", it added.
At least 84 garment workers, mostly females, were burnt to death and some 450 others seriously injured as a composite textile-garment factory went up in flames in a devastating fire at Kalurghat in the port city of Chittagong on Thursday night.Official sources claimed the death toll was 53.
A three-member inquiry committee has been formed by the district administration to probe into the incident.
Eyewitnesses said the death toll may be much higher as only 250 workers, out of over 1,000 working at the night-shift, could manage to come out by jumping from different floors of the multi-storied building of KTS Textiles, the main gate of which was locked at the time of the fire.
Official sources said rescuers, including army troops, pulled out 82 charred bodies from the wreck of KTS Textiles in an overnight rescue operation. Two other injured workers died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital after admission.
Over 450 seriously injured workers were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital where many of them were stated to be in critical condition.
Fire Brigade sources said the fire broke out in the KTS Textiles when a factory boiler exploded with a loud bang at about 7.30 PM on Thursday.
In the combined rescue operation RAB, police and the army personnel aided by the fire fighters and local people pulled out charred bodies one after another, taking the toll to 84 till filing of this report late last night. The rescuers apprehended that the death toll could rise further.
Army was called in at 3:00 AM when the firefighters and local rescuers failed to cope with the magnitude of the rescue operation as the factory continued to burn in the rasing fire with many trapped inside the four-storied building of the composite textile mills.
In view of an order placed by the factory authorities to a nearby bakery for supplying meals for 1,100 employees working at the night shift, sources said there must have been at least 1,000 workers on duty in the factory when the fire broke out.
As the fire engulfed the other floors, many of the workers, finding no other way to come out, started jumping from the windows of the building. Although they were fortunate to escape from the inferno, many were grievously injured in their attempt to save their lives.
However, the actual number of people dead could rise as Deputy Commissioner (North) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Ruhul Amin quoted relatives as saying that around 50 workers still remained missing.
Official sources said the rescuers, including army troops, pulled out 49 charred bodies from the wreck in the overnight rescue operation. Four other workers succumbed to their injuries after admission at the CMCH.
The injured were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, Cantonment Hospital and two private clinics.
"The most unfortunate were the women. They could do nothing, but to be burnt alive," said a surviving worker.
The burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital was shifted to the CMCH for proper treatment of the injured people.
Fifty teams of firefighters from Agrabad and other stations rushed to the spot to put out the blaze but failed to extinguish the fire till 9:00 AM yesterday morning.
The extent of damage could not be known initially but the garments factory owner claimed that the loss could go up to Tk 100 crore.
Wahidul Kabir, owner of the KTS Textiles, remained absconding since the fire incident.
About 370 garment and textile workers have been killed and some 3,000 injured in 23 fires at factories since 1990 in the country.
Garment sector of Bangladesh is the major foreign exchange earner, worth over US$ 5 billion a year.
A total of over two million workers, mostly women, are working in these garment factories throughout the country.
The government is yet to formulate a policy for the protection of the workers at their workplace, sources said.
Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdullah Al Noman, former commerce minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, CCC Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury and BGMEA officials visited the spot.
The garment-and-textile factory was established by Wahidul Kabir, a Bangladeshi expatriate in the USA, two years back with an investment of Tk 279 crore.
this is horrible! i cannot even imagine what people with loved ones who worked there must be going through.
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