A deathtrap blessed by its overseers

While the bodies of 49 out of the 52 dead workers of the Shezan Juice factory lay in morgues to be identified, everybody searched for an answer to the question: what caused the fire?

All monitoring bodies agree that the Shezan Juice factory in Narayanganj was a death trap.

They also all mention finding numerous violations.

What they fail to find a consensus on, however, is who exactly is to blame. There is blood on somebody's hands, but no one says whose hands it's on.

The fire started on Thursday evening and quickly engulfed the sprawling factory located on a three bigha plot of land. The fire service fought to bring the blaze under control even on Friday night.

On Saturday, police arrested eight,  MA Hashem, Managing Director of Sajeeb group, his four sons and three factory officials on charges of murders and attempts to murder.

Bhulta Police filed the case under sections 302, 307, and 326 of the Penal Code.

A Narayanganj court issued a four-day remand on the same day against Sajeeb Group Managing Director Md Abul Hashem and seven others.

Finger pointing

When seeking answers from any authority, they first throw up their hands to be absolved of all blame and then point their fingers elsewhere.

On Saturday evening, during an inspection of the charred remains of the factory by two teams an argument broke out.

Deputy Director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence Debasish Bardhan, after finishing his preliminary examination, was asked whether they had ever inspected this factory before. "This is under the jurisdiction of our Narayanganj unit and they are supposed to regularly do so," he quickly replied.

Asked when the last inspection had taken place, he could not say, instead choosing to focus on something else.

"The fire service always comes forward in times of such tragedies. Why should we also always take the blame alone? The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) is supposed to monitor such things," Debasish said.

The DIFE, apparently, had already been aware of gross violations taking place at the factory.

Mohammad Nasir Uddin Ahmed, inspector general of DIFE, said the anomalies had come to their notice during an inspection on 7 June, just last month.

"There were no fire drills and no safety committees. There were also clear violations of Covid-19 health guidelines," he said, adding they had served a notice to this company in this regard and a case was moved with the Third Labour Court.

The case was moved on June 30, but since the lockdown began from 1 July, it did not proceed any further.

When asked if DIFE had ever asked a factory to shut down, Nasir, who joined three months earlier, said such a notice was served to a factory in Gazipur.

But what of the notice sent to Sajeeb Group's factory in Narayanganj? DIFE's Narayanganj Deputy Inspector General Saumen Barua told TBS that although they had sent the notice, they had no way of knowing whether the factory got it or not.

Barua then contradicted himself, saying, "We had verbally conveyed the violations to them as well."

When asked whether the factory had been warned about the fire hazards, DIFE officials said this issue was looked after by Rajuk or the local administration, while chemicals and its storage were looked after by the explosives department. The DIFE, meanwhile, focused only on labour law violations.

The invisible child workers

Pointed out that the factory hired child workers -- a case filed by police on Saturday included a list of victims, many of whom were under 11-years-old-- DIFE inspector general Nasir said they found no one under-14.

According to the labour law 2006, the safety and schooling of anyone below the age of 14 cannot be jeopardised for the sake of employment. Employers also need a mandatory health certificate for such employees that needs to be updated every year.

Following another pointed finger, TBS contacted an inspector of The Department of Explosives. Inspector Abdur Rob was adamant that the six-storey factory had no permission to store chemicals there.

But Chief Inspector Abul Kalam Azad, of the same department, was not too firm on his conviction of whether the factory had the required permission or not.

 "To my knowledge, Hashem Food Ltd had not taken any permission from the department," he said.

Pressed further if the matter was checked, Abul Kalam said, "Since they work with food chemicals, we thought they had taken permission from somewhere else."

He, however, mentioned that to store explosive chemicals, a licence was a must.

"If we find that they had explosive chemicals without permission, we will fine them."

Factory Manager Kazi Rafiqul Islam told TBS that the production factory was also used as a godown.

Explosives officials also mentioned that the Shezan factory did not have approval for the building plan of the chemical storage unit. For storing chemicals, the blueprint of the godown also had to be approved.

A disaster made possible

Deputy Director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence Debasish Bardhan said the presence of plastic petro synthetic chemical, resin and foil – all highly flammable elements – made the fire deadlier and flames travelled faster.

It was also why it took so long to control the fire, he said.

His observation was echoed by the FBCCI's Standing Committee on Chemical and Industry. The committee's chairman Belayat Hossain, said, "The factory had too many petro synthetic chemicals. It had plastic plates, bottles, polythene bags…the workers even wore polyester.

He also mentioned that the building had three times more workers than its capacity. The six-storey building was made on three bighas of land, 34,000 square feet per floor.

According to Sajeeb Group Managing Director Md Abul Hashem, the factory had 600-700 workers.

Belayat also said the building stored five times the permissible amount of raw materials, pointing out how it was illegally used as a godown as well.

There were numerous violations in the factory and all those lapses made this disaster possible, he said.

Were the police aware of any lapses in the factory?  Mohammad Zaidul Alam, superintendent of police, Narayanganj, was asked about police negligence.

"Factory stuff is not our matter, we look after law enforcement. Those organisations with jurisdiction over such factories need to take responsibility," said Zaidul.

According to both the fire service and the Electronic Safety and Security Association of Bangladesh (ESSAB), the building had two staircases, instead of the minimum required four based on the building floor area.

The exits were barricaded and the door to the roof, an escape for many, was also locked.

Furthermore, Sajeeb Group's building did not seem to have any fire extinguishers, an ironic situation because the company is an importer of fire fighting equipment.

Meanwhile, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Saturday, while visiting the fire-affected factory, told reporters that those who will be found even the least negligent will be brought to book.

"Separate investigations are underway; police also filed a case and eight people were arrested. After thorough investigation, legal action will be taken," he added.