No fire safety certificate at Bangladeshi factory when 110 people died in fire

It has been reported that a Bangladeshi clothes factory did not have a valid fire safety certificate when a fire broke out killing over 110 people.

Abu Naim Mohammad Shahidullah, from the Fire Service and Civil Defence department confirmed that the factory’s certificate had expired in June and had not been renewed.

Mr Shahidullah said “The fire safety certificate was given [to the factory] last year. But he [the owner] is supposed to get it renewed this year any time after June 2012. We gave him a reminder that he should contact us for renewal. It was not done. If they had come [to us] earlier then the factory would have checked by our inspectors.”

The factory was making clothes for Western retailers such as Walmart, C&A and The Edinburgh Woollen Mill at the time of the blaze.  Walmart later said that it was terminating the services of the factory.

More than 1000 workers were at the factory when the fire started on 24th November on the ground floor of the building on the outskirts of Dhaka.

A government inquiry into the fire will now be carried out.