Badrul Huda Sohel :
The fire at the Shezan Juice Factory, a sister concern of Hashem Foods Limited in Rupganj, has added to our grief when the death toll due to Covid-19 pandemic in the country has crossed 200 daily. The country had to see 52 more cremated bodies in addition to the death caused by corona virus. Fire accidents in factories and garment industries are not new in our country. We have not yet forgotten the grief over the fire at Tazreen Fashion Garments in Savar and F R Tower in Banani. Hundreds of workers die in horrific fire accidents every year while working in factories.
We see almost same horrible scene in every fire accident. The queue of corpses and the wailing and crying of relatives is a common picture of every fire accident. But there is a different aspect of the fire at the Shezan juice factory last Thursday, and that is, in this mishap, unlike other fire accidents, the incident of partial body burning was not very noticeable. The whole body has been reduced to ashes in such a way that it is difficult to identify the body without a DNA test. Whatever the source of the fire, it is clear that the factory had a large collection of chemicals and other combustible substances. Otherwise, there should be no reason for the fire to come under control at midnight on Thursday and ignite again in the early morning.
The building of this juice factory in Rupganj is known to have an area of 35,000 square feet where at least four or five-way stairs for exits was required. There was supposed to be a sufficient number of fire extinguishers on each floor. There needed to be enough space for movement and walking. But after the accident we found that the workers, in fact, were not there in any congenial working environment. Neither fire extinguishing equipment, nor fire alarming system was there. Such a large factory did not also have fire safety doors.
However, a month before the fire accident, a government department of factory affairs visited the factory and found many irregularities, and also warned the factory authorities about it. If the issues had been taken into account at that moment, we might not have lost 52 fresh lives. One more thing in the factory has intensified our grief. That is, many of those burnt in the accident were children and teenagers. Despite the prohibition and discouragement of child labor, the reality at work is quite the opposite. According to the newspapers, the roof of the six-storey building has only two stairs, one of which was locked. The road from the fourth floor to the other side was locked and it was not possible for the workers to go anywhere or to the roof. And the workers could not come out in any condition as they were stuck with different floor nets. Each floor was crammed with different cartoons and raw materials. From this description we doubt whether the building was actually constructed in accordance with the Bangladesh National Building Code.
The F R Tower in Dhaka’s Banani had tracks for emergency evacuation from possible fires, but they were also locked. We often notice the floor being locked, including the exit. This locking system is basically an obstacle for the workers to move away from the workplace. For a trivial reason, the rescue attempts always halt.
The fact that 16 units of the fire service tried to control the fire for long 20-22 hours showed how much chemical and combustible material was in the factory. We think that storing dangerous flammable substances in a working environment in the same building is a severe mismanagement.
We hope that the culprits and those who neglected their duties will be brought to book as soon as possible after a proper investigation in fire accident of Shezan Juice Factory. To run an industry or a factory, permission has to be obtained from at least 10-12 government departments. These licensing departments should not stop their activities after the approval of factories to operate. Whether the owners are complying with the approval conditions throughout the year should also be monitored from time to time. In the industrial areas of the country including Dhaka, Chattogram, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Savar, necessary measures should be taken to ensure a risk-free working environment for the workers by identifying the garments or factories that may be at risk of fire accidents.
(Mr. Badrul Huda is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Ishakha International University. E-mail: [email protected]).
