Fire department has given some 350 apparel factories a one-month timeframe for meeting the required fire-safety compliances in an ongoing initiative to ensure full-proof workplace safety in the sector, officials said.
Fire Service and Civil Defence issued the deadline recently after its inspection teams found those factories most vulnerable to fire incidents.
Such estimation is based on the field-level inspection by the department. It has found that nearly 32 per cent of the inspected RMG factories located in the capital city and in its adjacent areas are non-compliant with the minimum level of fire safety requirements. This implies that the country's largest foreign exchange-earning sector, in gross value terms, is vulnerable to recurring fire incidents.
The units with dismal fire safety arrangement are located at Ashulia, Savar, Narayanganj, Gazipur and in the capital city. The department, which has so far inspected 1100 apparel units, also identified that around 54 per cent of them were following safety measures, though those were not up to the mark.
It also detected that only 14 per cent of the units have adequate fire safety measures.
"We've so far issued letters to the owners of 287 apparel units with dismal safety measures and they were given a 30-day deadline to meet the required fire-safety compliances to avert any fire incidents," Deputy Director of Fire Service and Civil Defence ABM Nurul Haque said.
He said they will send the same letters to managing directors of 60 more factories within the week.
During the drive, they checked whether the factories had adequate fire-fighting equipment, emergency fire exits and evacuation arrangements, and also whether the management trained workers in tackling fire incidents.
The validity period for fire-fighting equipment at several factories was found to have expired and the workers had not been imparted training on using them, said Mr Haque, who is also the chairman of the monitoring cell of the inspection committee.
"If the factories fail to comply with the suggestion of the inspectors, they will recommend the authorities concerned for taking legal action against them," he said.
Seeking anonymity, another senior fireman involved in the inspection said most of the inspected apparel factories were vulnerable to fire accident in the absence of alternative exits, trained firemen, water sources and evacuation arrangements.
He said that the government in 2000 ordered the apparel makers to recruit experienced fire officers to ensure safety of the apparel units and warned of stern actions against those not abiding by the order.
More than a decade has elapsed, but many apparel factory owners are yet to meet this requirement, which was one of the reasons behind a large number of small and big fire incidents faced by leading industrial sector over the last ten years, the fireman said
"All such incidents have led to the deaths of several hundred workers, besides the loss of a hefty amount of money, in terms of value of industrial assets including raw materials," he added.
The department felt the necessity of setting up fire stations in the country's apparel industrial hub to cope with the growing number of fire incidents in the country's largest sector.
Director General of the fire department Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan said they have planned to set up nine more fire stations with updated equipment in the country's major apparel industrial hubs.
"And the government has approved the move in principle. We'll be able to reduce the rate of fire-related trouble significantly once the stations are installed," he said adding that the fire stations will be built in Chandana Chowraasta, Rajendrapur Chworaasta and Konabari in Gapipur, Zirabo, Sarabo, Kanchpur, Shibo Market of Fatulla, Karnaphuli and Khulshi of Chittagong.
When contacted, President of Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) Abdus Salam Murshedy hailed the move, saying that the apparel makers have focused seriously on safety-related issues, specially fire and structural ones, for their own survival following frequent fire incidents.
"It'll take time as a good number of factories are located in shared buildings," said Mr Murshedy, also former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the country's apex apparel makers' body.
"The most important thing is that whether the safety standards set by two other global bodies Accord, Alliance and even by the state-owned department will be available in Bangladesh as it becomes very difficult for many of the owners to meet those much expensive suggestions," he said.
He also said all the equipment in respect of fire safety has to be duty free in the upcoming financial year (2014-2015).
Mr. Murshedy, also managing director of Envoy Group, requested the government to give an instruction to the banks for financing the apparel factories in terms of the fire-safety measures.
The issue of fire safety at the RMG factories figured prominently following the deadly blaze that had killed at least 113 workers at Tazreen Fashions in Ashulia on November 24, 2012.
The country's Fire Service and Civil Defence Directorate launched a special drive, in the aftermath of that incident, to identify RMG factories having a dismal safety system.
Since then, several teams of the department have so far inspected around 1100 apparel factories and found 347 of them to be not following the minimum safety measures.
According to the inspection reports, 597 apparel factories have fire safety steps, but those are not satisfactory, and only 156 units fully comply with the fire safety system.
350 RMG units given one-month time to meet fire safety needs
Jubair Hasan | Published: May 26, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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