Originally Posted by
New York Times
MUMBAI, India — A fire at a garment factory north of Dhaka,
Bangladesh, killed at least 25 people and injured dozens more on Monday, news agencies reported, in the latest blow to the country’s largest industry.
The fire at a 10-story factory in the Ashulia industrial area, about 16 miles from the capital, started around lunch time when most of the workers were outside.
More than 10,000 people work at the complex, said Arifa Ahmed, an official of the factory owned by the Hameem Group, Reuters reported.
Garment factories employ about 3 million Bangladeshis, most of them women, to make clothes for western stores like Wal-Mart, H&M, and J.C. Penney. The government passed an increase minimum wage in August, the first increase since 2006.
The fire comes days after three people were killed in labor protests. Workers have said they were protesting because some factories had not implemented a government-mandated 80 percent increase in the minimum wage, to 3,000 taka or about $43.
It was unclear what caused the fire at the Hameem factory and whether it was related to the labor unrest. Garment factories are susceptible to fires because piles of clothes are easily combustible. Fires can also be very deadly because some factory owners lock exits to prevent workers from leaving their machines.
dozens killed in Bangledesh garment factory fire
