A Bangladeshi Muslim man sprays holy water before burying the bodies of some of the victims of Saturday's fire in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh.(Photo: Ashraful Alam Tito, AP)
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Amid the ash, broken glass and melted sewing
machines at what is left of the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory, there
are piles of blue, red and off-white children's shorts bearing
Wal-Mart's Faded Glory brand. Shorts from hip-hop star Sean Combs' ENYCE
label lay on the floor and are stacked in cartons.
An Associated
Press reporter searching the factory Wednesday found these and other
clothes, including sweaters from the French company Teddy Smith, among
the equipment charred in the fire that killed 112 workers Saturday. He
also found entries in account books indicating that the factory took
orders to produce clothes for Disney, Sears and other Western brands.
MORE: Wal-Mart distances itself from fire in Bangladesh
Garments
and documents left behind in the factory show it was used by a host of
major American and European retailers, though at least one of them -
Wal-Mart - had been aware of safety problems. Wal-Mart blames a supplier
for using Tazreen Fashions without its knowledge.
The fire has
elevated awareness of something labor groups, retailers and governments
have known for years: Bangladesh's fast-growing garment industry -
second only to China's in exports - is rife with dangerous workplaces.
More than 300 workers there have died in fires since 2006.
Police
on Wednesday arrested three factory officials suspected of locking in
the workers who died in Saturday's fire, the deadliest in the South
Asian country's less than 35-year history of exporting clothing.
MORE: At least 117 killed in fire at Bangladeshi clothing factory
Local
police chief Habibur Rahman said the three will be questioned amid
reports that many workers trying to escape the blaze had been locked
inside. He said the owner of the factory was not among those arrested.
The
three officials were arrested Wednesday at their homes in Savar, the
Dhaka suburb where the factory is also located. Rahman did not identify
the officials or give their job status.
Workers who survived the
fire say exit doors were locked, and a fire official has said that far
fewer people would have died if there had been just one emergency exit.
Of the dead, 53 bodies were burned so badly they could not be
identified; they were buried anonymously.
The fire started on the
ground floor, where a factory worker named Nasima said stacks of yarn
and clothes blocked part of the stairway.
Nasima, who uses only
one name, said that when workers tried to flee, managers told them to go
back to their work stations, but they were ignored.
Dense smoke
filled the stairway, making it hard to see, and when the lights went out
the workers were left in total darkness. Another surviving worker,
Mohammad Rajiv, said some people used their cellphones to light their
way.
"Everyone was screaming for help," Nasima said. "Total chaos,
panic and screaming. Everyone was trying to escape and come out. I was
pulling the shirt of a man. I fainted and when I woke up I found myself
lying on the road outside the factory.
"I don't know how I survived."
Rajiv
said the factory conducted a fire drill just three days before the fire
broke out, but no one used the fire extinguishers. "Only a selected
group of workers are trained to use the extinguishers. Others have no
idea how to use them," he said.
Now windows at the eight-story
factory are broken, sewing machines melted or burned to ash. Much of the
clothing on the lower floors was incinerated. Nightgowns, children's
shorts, pants, jackets and sweat shirts were strewn about, piled up in
some places, boxed in others.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and
Interior Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir have said arson is suspected.
Police say they have not ruled out sabotage.
Wal-Mart had received
an audit deeming the factory "high risk" last year, said it had decided
to stop doing business with Tazreen, but that a supplier subcontracted
work to the factory anyway. Wal-Mart said it stopped working with that
supplier on Monday.
Calls made to The Walt Disney Company and to Sears Holdings were not immediately returned.
Local
TV reports said about 3,000 garment workers held protests over the fire
Wednesday, blocking roads and throwing stones at some factories and
vehicles. It was the third straight day of demonstrations, and as they
did previously, factories in the area closed to avoid violence.
Police used batons to disperse the protesters, but no injuries were immediately reported.
According
to local television, most factories in the area closed after opening
briefly because of the protests - a common tactic to avoid violence.
Associated Press