WASHINGTON — A major fire broke out on the seventh floor of a sweater factory in Bangladesh early Tuesday morning, reportedly injuring some people and triggering an outcry from labor and human rights groups that claimed the facility was inspected two years ago but had not made the mandated fire and safety repairs.
The Clean Clothes Campaign, the International Labor Rights Forum, the Maquila Solidarity Network and the Worker Rights Consortium, along with local news reports said the fire erupted at the Matrix Sweater factory, a supplier to H&M and J.C. Penney, based on research of public information. The groups called on retailers and brands to step up their assistance in making repairs at Bangladesh factories.
“It has been confirmed to us that there has been a fire at one factory that produces for H&M,” said an H&M spokeswoman. “Our team in Dhaka is closely monitoring the situation.”
Related Galleries
A spokeswoman for J.C. Penney said, “We were just made aware of the factory fire in Gazipur early this morning and our local Bangladesh office has been working in cooperation with Matrix and local officials to determine the cause. We are relieved to learn that there was no loss of life and any injuries sustained are non-life-threatening. It is our understanding that Matrix received prior fire safety training by representatives of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.”
Matrix Sweaters is located in the Gazipur suburb of Dhaka and a local news video provided by the groups showed injured people being carried out of the burning building.
According to fire department officials, more than two dozen fire units from nearby areas were quickly brought to the spot. It took more than five hours to put out the blaze, the cause of which could not immediately be ascertained. The fire rapidly spread to lower floors, damaging finished goods ready for export, as well as the main working areas of the factory.
An inquiry committee has been set up to report on the cause of the fire within a week. The fire has reportedly caused extensive damage to the factory, estimated to be more than $12 million.
Matrix employs about 6,000 workers, according to the coalition, but it appeared the majority of workers had not yet started a new day shift.
“We are extremely relieved that this fire hasn’t resulted in another tragedy on the scale of the Tazreen factory fire of 2012,”said Sam Maher, a worker safety program officer at the Clean Clothes Campaign. “However, this is more down to luck than anything else — had the fire broken out just a few hours later, it is more than possible that workers would have found themselves trapped. We urge all buyers from Bangladesh, including those who signed up to the Accord or the Alliance, to do more to get these vital repairs done without delay.”
The fire at Matrix comes nearly three years after the Rana Plaza building collapse that claimed more than 1,133 people in April 2013 and a fire a few months earlier at Tazreen Fashion fire that killed 112 garment workers. Those tragedies sparked a global outcry and led to the launch of two major industry consortiums — the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety — and a five-year plan to inspect and remediate thousands of garment factories companies use in Bangladesh.
“This is indeed a shared Accord-Alliance factory,” an Accord spokesman said. “We sent a team of engineers to the site today to investigate the situation and we will issue a statement following our engineers’ report from their visit.”