Firestorm Engulfs Bangladesh Clothing Factory
A worker visits the devastated factory where more than 100 died. (Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Biraj)
Thousands of angry textile workers protested in Bangladesh on Monday. They’re demanding better safety standards after a factory fire killed more than 100 people this past weekend.
The local fire chief said the building had no emergency exits.
The BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, says fires are not uncommon in Bangladesh’s huge apparel industry, “but this is the worst ever,” and people are furious.
Many of the clothes made in Bangladesh end up in American stores. Ethirajan says US retailers put a lot of pressure on manufacturers to bring their buildings up to code and improve worker conditions.
“If it wasn’t for them,” he says, “there probably wouldn’t be any improvement at all.”
Safety and workers’ conditions have improved greatly in recent years, says Ethirajan.