Bangladesh Factory Collapse Kills 87: Owner Ignored Giant Fracture Warning [VIDEO] - IBTimes UK

According to Foxvog, the collapse eerily echoes the Spectrum factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2005, in which 64 people were killed and 80 were injured. Garment factories in Bangladesh, the world’s biggest exporter of clothing after China, are often located in unsafe buildings originally constructed for residential or commercial purposes.

“These buildings were made for residential purposes, not for heavy industries with overloads of people and machines,” said Foxvog. “They don’t have fire emergency exit or external fire escapes like those set on apartment buildings in the US and the UK. They don’t have fireproof staircases and use instead a collapsible metal gate proof.”

“The vast majority of Bangladesh’s 5,000 factories are not compliant to safety measures,” she continued. “If they were operative in the US or the UK they would have been told to shut down immediately.”

An electrical fault was likely the cause for the fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory in Bangladesh last November, which killed 111 people. Since then, 40 other incidents have caused a total death toll of 10 people, with 650 workers injured. “The building collapse is one of several incidents,” Foxvog said. “It’s a widespread problem that needs a widespread solution.”