Fire Safety Preparedness in the Bangladesh Ready-Made Garment Industry: Workers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Although the ready-made garment (RMG) industry is vital to Bangladesh’s economy, fire incidents cause significant loss of life and property in the sector. This paper explores RMG workers’ perceptions of fire safety preparedness in their factories and of their own preparedness, using a qualitative approach through interviews with 36 RMG workers and 14 key informants. Findings show that all factories have a safety committee, a fire prevention plan, an early fire warning system and an emergency action plan. Moreover, each factory conducts fire training and drills, performs regular workplace inspections, maintains provisions for the safe storage of chemicals, maintains firefighting equipment, trains personnel for fire emergencies, and clearly displays emergency contact numbers. Common problems at the factory level include often obstructed emergency pathways and workroom doors, blocked areas outside exit gates leading to the assembly point, narrow staircases, insufficient fire training for all workers, lack of participation by all workers in all evacuation drills and improper chemical storage. At the worker level, although all or most workers know one or more causes of fires, the drop, down, and roll technique, the locations of firefighting equipment and emergency contact information, problems remain in following established evacuation procedures and in understanding the appropriate actions to take to protect against smoke inhalation or if trapped inside a building during a fire. These findings suggest that improvements in fire safety preparedness are essential at both the factory and worker levels to strengthen the resilience of factories and their workers to fire hazards. These findings will help policymakers, government agencies, factory owners, RMG workers and other stakeholders take measures to strengthen the resilience of the RMG industry and its workers against fire hazards in Bangladesh and other similar countries.