Owners arrested for Bangladesh garment fire

DHAKA: Bangladesh police said Wednesday they had arrested the owners of a garment factory where seven women were killed in a weekend blaze, the latest in a series of deadly accidents in the sector.

Police arrested the chairman and managing director of the Smart garment factory late Tuesday after the father of one of the dead workers filed a criminal case blaming them for the death of the workers due to gross negligence.

The arrest follows a spate of fires in Bangladesh's $20 billion apparel sector, including the industry's worst in November when 111 workers were killed at a plant supplying clothes for foreign brands including US giant Walmart.

In the fire on Saturday, workers told AFP that one of the two doors of the factory -- which among others was making clothing for Spanish retail giant Inditex, owner of the popular Zara brand -- was locked when the fire broke out.

The owners "did not have any fire licence for the factory and there was no fire equipment or emergency exit to tackle any fire accident", Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told.

Inditex has since said that it has cancelled contracts with two of its suppliers, including a Bangladeshi manufacturer which allegedly sub-contracted the work to Smart.

The factory also employed under-age workers as two of the dead were found to be under 18, a police official said.

Although the Tazreen plant where 111 died in November did not have any fire licence and lacked fire safety equipment, its owner escaped arrest despite a series of protests demanding his detention.

Fire is a common problem in the 4,500 garment factories in Bangladesh, the world's second largest apparel maker. Many operations are based in badly constructed buildings with substandard wiring.

Around 700 people have been killed in garment factory fires in the country since 2006, according to the Amsterdam-based Clean Clothes Campaign activist group.

The garment industry is the mainstay of the impoverished country's economy, accounting for up to 80 percent of Bangladesh's annual exports last year.

Western retailers have criticised the Bangladeshi factories for not ensuring worker safety, but major brands continue to place orders and critics say they turn a blind eye to their work being sub-contracted.