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20 October, 2025Last week, Bangladesh witnessed two massive fire incidents in garment factories located in Dhaka and Chattogram, bringing the question of industrial safety, particularly building safety standards in readymade garment sector, back into the spotlight.
On 14 October, a deadly fire engulfed a garment factory and chemical warehouse in Dhaka’s Mirpur area, claiming lives of sixteen workers and injuring several others. It took almost 27 hours for the rescue effort to put out the fire. According to news reports, the victims could not escape from toxic fumes as the roof door was locked, indicating serious lapses in fire safety measures.
Since the Rana Plaza tragedy, in 2013, several steps have been implemented under the leadership of global and national trade unions to improve building safety standards in RMG industry in Bangladesh. This included the establishing of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh in 2013 to implement health and safety inspections and remediation monitoring, safety training and safety complaints handling functions.
According to the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, the affected establishments are not covered by the inspections and remediation program implemented by the RMG Sustainability Council in Bangladesh. RSC, which is a national tripartite body carrying forward the workplace safety programmes of the Accord in Bangladesh and is closely monitoring the situation, has also confirmed that the factory involved in this incident does not fall under the purview of the RSC’s safety oversight programme.
Expressing condolences to the victims and their families, IndustriALL general secretary, Atle Høie says:
“The fire incident in Mirpur is a clear reminder of how workers’ safety remains at risk in Bangladesh’s RMG factories which fall outside of any regulatory, monitoring or inspection mechanisms. This underscores the importance of legally binding instruments, like the Accord and RSC, to ensure worker health and safety in the textile and garment industry. We need more garment brands to enter these agreements to strengthen safety standards and commit to protecting every worker.”
The second fire incident occurred on 16 October in a garment factory named Adams Caps and Textile Limited in Chattogram Export Processing Zone. According to media reports, no casualties have been reported so far. Fire Alarms went off when the fire broke out, allowing workers to safely leave the building.