Appco factory operated illegally, had no fire safety

The plastic factory at Mirpur in which a devastating fire killed 13 workers on Saturday did not have legal permission for operation and lacked sufficient fire safety measures and security for workers.
‘The factory was running illegally. They even did not apply for licence for setting up and running the factory,’ said Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the department of inspection for factories and establishments.
Syed Ahmed said that he directed the department concerned to file a case against the owners of the disposable plastic item-producing factory.
At least three workers who survived the blaze in the five-storey factory of Appco Bangladesh Limited at Mirpur in the capital on Saturday evening, said that they had escaped the inferno jumping from the top floor by breaking open the windows and landed on the roof of the next building as the factory did not have emergency fire exit.
‘We got trapped inside as the fire engulfed the building quickly through the stairs. We came out after locals cut the grills to make space,’ said Nazma Begum, a factory worker.
An official of the fire service investigation team said that they had found an adequate number of fire extinguishers, but the factory did not have an emergency exit.
‘The fire spread so quickly after the gas cylinder explosion and there were huge inflammable substances, including chemicals, in the factory, that the employees could not use the fire extinguishers,’ said Abdulla-al-Arefen, a fire servicen officer.
Shah Ali police station sub-inspector Abu Bakar Siddique, who is investigating the fire incident, said that the police had handed over bodies of 11 victims to their families and the rest two, which could not be identified till Sunday evening, lay at the morgue of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
No case was file till Sunday evening. The police, however, said that they were taking preparation to file a case.
Two families claimed one of the two bodies as that of their relative prompting the authorities to send the body for DNA test.
Four workers are taking treatment at the burn unit of DMCH and other places.
Mojibur Rahman, security guard of the factory, told New Age on Sunday none but family members of one employee, named Mantu, complained that he remained missing. The police station, however, said they received no complaints about any missing worker.
The police and investigation agencies could not trace the owners of the factory till Sunday evening.
The head of the four-member probe body formed by labour and employment ministry, Md Obidul Islam, also joint inspector general of the department of inspection for factories and establishments, said that they could not gather any information about the factory and the raw material they used as yet as none from management was found.
Locals said that one Anisuzzaman Khan had set up the factory at Mirpur section 1.
Asked if there were safety measures at the factory, Obidul said it was an illegal factory. ‘We never inspected it before.’
At least 13 people, including two women, were killed and many others injured in the factory blaze on Saturday evening. Twenty-one fire engines put out the fire after three hours of efforts.