DHAKA: A boiler explosion at a Bangladeshi garment factory killed 10 people and injured dozens, fire officials said today, the latest accident to hit one of the world’s biggest garment producers. The incident late yesterday happened during maintenance work at the factory owned by Multifabs Limited, a Bangladeshi company on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, company and fire brigade officials said. “Nine people were killed in the blast and one died in hospital,” fire service official Palash Chandra Modak said.
The firm supplies knitted apparel to clients in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Russia, Spain, Netherlands and Britain, including to Littlewoods, one of Britain’s oldest retail brands, according to its website. Fashion chain Lindex, which is part of Finnish retailer Stockmann, said the Bangladeshi firm was one of its most important suppliers. Multifabs said the six-year-old boiler, procured from Germany, had just been serviced.
The blast happened as the factory was being readied to resume operations following a 10-day shutdown for the Eid holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “This was an accident. Everything was fine,” Mahiuddin Faruqui, the company’s chairman and managing director, told Reuters. “The boiler was running well. After servicing when workers were trying to restart it, it went off.” Bangladesh’s garment-making industry, the biggest in the world after China’s, employs 4 million people and generates 80 per cent of the country’s export earnings. For years, activists had criticised retailers for failing to improve working conditions in supply chains characterised by long hours, low pay, poor safety standards and a lack of union representation for workers.
But Bangladesh came under close scrutiny after the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in 2013, which killed more than 1,100 people, and a fire at a garment factory in 2012 that killed 112 workers. It sparked demands for greater safety and put the onus to act on foreign companies sourcing clothing from Bangladesh. Two international coalitions were formed to help fund improvements to building and fire safety at thousands of garment factories across Bangladesh.