Yesterday night firefighters were still working to extinguish a massive blaze that started on Saturday night at the BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture, at Sitakunda, 40km from the port city of Chittagong, in southeast Bangladesh (216 Km southeast of the capital Dhaka).
The fire killed at least 49 people (9 of them were firefighters), injuring around 300 (at the time of writing, but, according to reports, the death toll may rise as there are still unaccounted people).
The cause of the explosions that shook the entire neighbourhood and was heard several kilometres away is not clear yet, but officials suspect it may have originated in a container of hydrogen peroxide (which is actually not flammable, but the oxidising agent can be explosive when exposed to heat, fire or sparks).
From there, it spread quickly to other chemical-filled containers, causing multiple explosions. The toxic content meant that it was also difficult to get to the area for rescuers (firefighters didn't even know there was toxic material in the containers) because of the thick columns of smoke.
Reports state that the storage site held around 4,000 containers, but there weren't just toxic materials in the containers. Mominur Rahman, Chief Administrator of Chittagong district, stated the depot contained millions of dollars' worth of garments waiting to be exported to Western retailers.
Bangladesh is a major supplier of clothing to the West, the world's second-biggest exporter to be precise. Yet safety regulations and the enforcement of industrial safety rules in the country are often ignored, these are the main reasons why there have often been several large fires and other incidents at factories in recent years.
In 2012, 117 workers died after they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka; in 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. But since then there were also incidents in other types of industries, with oil tanks exploding, fires at food processing factories and in a house illegally storing chemicals.
Fast fashion retailers may not be responsible for all these disasters, even though they are responsible for closing their eyes in front of the country's poor industrial safety track record. All sorts of global brands employ thousands of low-paid workers in Bangladesh, and improving factory conditions is their responsibility as well. There have actually been some changes throughout the years, but accidents still occur.
Some steps were taken to improve the conditions of factory workers through agreements such as Accord, but it would be good if fast fashion retailers would do more to promote the health and safety of the garment workers, but also of other workers in Bangladesh.
In a way, while the fashion industry may not be directly responsible for this accident, the millions of dollars' worth of garments in the containers also contributed to fuel the fire, prompting us to wonder if we should seriously consider to reduce certain productions.
There is actually a slogan from an installation designed by the students from the Istituto Europeo di Design (European Institute of Design) currently on at Base Milano (Via Bergognone 34) that can help us pondering about issues such as labour laws, workers' rights and production.
Entitled "Absolute Beginners", the installation is dedicated to 10 inspiring women (among the others the students also looked at the late artist and designer Cinzia Ruggeri who is going through a revival at the moment). One installation is dedicated to architect Lina Bo Bardi and revolves around decolonisation, pluralism in Brazil and her unfinished projects and features the socialist slogan "Trabalhar Menos, Trabalhar Todos, Produzir o Necessário, Redistribuir Tudo" (Work Less, Work for All, Produce What is Needed, Redistribute Everything; the first half is a slogan from 1978, but the entire slogan was relaunched in 2020 in post-pandemic Italy). The slogan should make us think about labour nowadays, the conditions of workers all over the world, and how what went up in toxic smoke in a tragic incident in Bangladesh, in particular those containers of garments ready to be shipped to the West, was also the fruit of constant exploitation, overproduction and overconsumption.
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