Personal Stories of Factory Accidents

Rana Plaza Disaster

The Rana Plaza Disaster is also known as the Dhaka garment factory collapse in 2013. The eight-story building collapsed due to structural failure in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka Distict in Bangladesh. The fall led to the death of 1134 people.

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"'Nobody was listening'.‘Help me!’ people screamed, recalled Mr. Hridoy, absently picking at a thigh of Kentucky Fried Chicken and staring out the smudgy window at the typically epic traffic jam on the dusty highway out front, the relentless barrage of klaxons nearly drowning him out. He was remembering the moment the seventh floor of the eight-story Rana Plaza retail and apparel manufacturing complex crumbled beneath his feet five years ago today. The catastrophe injured 2,500 and killed more than 1,100. It was the deadliest garment industry accident in modern history." - The NY Times

Kunshan Factory Explosion

The explosion occured at Zhongrong Metal Production Company, an automotive parts factory, in Kunshan, Jiangsu, China. This horrendous 2014 event led to 146 deaths and 114 injured workers.
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"'We heard the explosion and we were all shocked', a security guard from a nearby factory told Agence France-Presse. He said the blast happened as workers were changing shifts, resulting in higher casualties.'The scene is a mess, it's unrecognisable,' a witness at the scene wrote on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter." - The Guardian

Pakistan Factory Fires in 2012

Pakistan had some of its worse factory fires in 2012 where fires started in garment factories in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore. The two events resulted in 314 deaths.

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"All the other doors had been locked, a common practice to ensure that workers do not leave the premises before their shift ends. The windows of the building were also blocked by metal grills. Many survivors suffered third-degree burns, rescue workers said. Workers, who were in the basement, died due to suffocation.'All exit ways were closed,' Ehtisham-ud-din, the chief fire officer of Karachi, told reporters." - The NY Times