Latest Bangladesh factory fire kills owner, seven others

• Workers say safety%2C treatment better at this plant than most
• The victims died of suffocation as they ran down the stairs
• Death toll in recent collapse at another factory nears 1%2C000

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Eight people died in a fire that filled stairwells with acrid smoke at a sweater factory here, the latest deadly incident to hit Bangladesh's huge and weakly regulated garment processing sector.

The fire happened in the Mirpur area of north Dhaka, where soldiers are still retrieving corpses from the ruins of a factory collapse in which more than 900 garment workers died last month.

That collapse has focused attention on the safety of the garment industry here, which makes textiles and clothing for export to many Western retailers. Bangladesh is the world's second-largest apparel maker after China.

Wednesday's fire was fed by huge piles of acrylic products used to make sweaters at the building for Tung Hai Sweaters Ltd., the Daily Star newspaper reported. Outside the smoke-blackened premises, employees gathered Thursday morning to share sadness at the deaths and concern about their own livelihoods.

"Firstly, we are in sorrow for the owner who died (Rahman)," said Ripom Muhammed Abu, 26, who operates sweater processing machinery at the factory. "We are also worried about our jobs, our futures depend on them."

"Safety was better here than in other garment factories," said Ripom, who earns up to $150 per month but only works for half the year due to the seasonal nature of the sweater business. "We have had regular training including use of fire extinguishers, and fire drills happen at least monthly."

The fire engulfed the lower floors of the 11-story factory, which had closed for the day. The smoldering acrylic produced immense amounts of smoke and poison gas that killed those trying to flee. The victims died of suffocation as they ran down the stairs, according to Mamun Mahmud, deputy director of the fire service.

"They are really unfortunate," he said.

The building appeared to have been properly built, he said. It had two stairwells in the front and an emergency exit in the back, but those inside probably panicked when they saw smoke and ran into one of the front stairwells, he said. Had they used the emergency stairwell, they would have survived, he said.

Almost all the employees had left work as usual Wednesday evening, but the firm's managing director Mahbubur Rahman, a few friends including a senior local police officer and some staff were on the 9th floor when the started after 11 p.m.

Undated photos on a local training provider, Bangladesh Fire Protection Services Limited, show fire and safety training sessions at Tung Hai. Mossanaam Amina, 35, a cleaner at Tung Hai, remembered being taught how to handle a fire extinguisher.

Before the building collapse at Rana Plaza, the worst disaster in the South Asian nation's $20 billion a year garment export sector was a November 2012 blaze that killed 112 people at the Tazreen Fashion factory outside Dhaka.

But training can't make up for huge lapses in building safety at Bangladesh's factories, says Scott Nova, executive director of the non-profit labor group Worker Rights Consortium.

News reports say the dead were in stairwells, as they were in the Tazreen blaze. Nova says no building in the U.S. - or even Bangladesh - can legally be built without enclosed stairwells that have fire walls and doors that help those on upper floors escape if the fire is on a lower floor.

"Instead of being a lifeline, they become a chimney," Nova says of the stairwells.

Without working sprinkler systems or exterior fire escapes, like Tazreen, "this factory was also a fire trap," says Charles Kernaghan, director of the Institute for Labour and Human Rights in Pittsburgh.

"Clearly the executives of the factory did not have their own exit strategy," Kernaghan said.

Despite the fire, and the Rana Plaza collapse, Ripom and other employees stressed they wanted to return to work if the factory re-opens.

"He was a good boss," Mossanaam said of Rahman, also a director of the country's Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), a coalition of factory owners and a lobby group.

"He assured us our salaries were guaranteed, and there were never any tricks," said Mossanaam, who earns $50 a month.

The Facebook page of the Tung Hai Group claimed it was a sprawling enterprise with a total of 7,000 employees at its two factories and the capacity to produce well over 6 million sweaters, shirts, pants and pajamas every month. The group claimed it did business with major retailers in Europe and North America.

The death of an executive – instead of the factory floor workers who more commonly perish – and his BGMEA status may mean this tragedy has a broader impact.

"I hope the government and industry will make greater changes" than after earlier fires, Ripom said.

Nova, whose group is funded by colleges and universities who want higher standards at factories that produce their branded clothing, hopes so, too.

"It's madness," he says. "It's indicative of the fact these guys are pursuing a strategy that is so high risk, they are risking their own lives."

Workers with cranes and other heavy equipment were still pulling apart the rubble and finding more bodies at the site of the April 24 building collapse in Rana Plaza. On Thursday, authorities said the death toll had risen to 950 and it was unclear how many more people were missing. More than 2,500 people were rescued alive after the accident.

Contributing: The Associated Press; O'Donnell reported from McLean, Va.