Karachi factory fire: Relatives bury dead {247 dead}

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19582647


Families in the Pakistani city of Karachi are burying their dead after a fire engulfed a garment factory with workers trapped inside, killing at least 247 people.

Many other relatives are lining up at the city's hospitals to give blood samples to help with DNA identification of almost 100 charred bodies.

The fire began on Tuesday and raged for more than 15 hours overnight.

The blaze was one of the worst fires in Pakistan's recent history.

[HiPointDem]

1. They died so we could have cheap clothes.

The 1,200 registered employees at Ali Enterprises on the Hub River Road Karachi SITE (Sindh Industrial Trading Estate) made ready-to-wear clothing dispatched across the country and exported abroad, including to Britain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/asia/hundreds-die-in-factory-fires-in-pakistan.html?pagewanted=all

There was a fire in a shoe factory the same day, killed 25.

ain't free trade great?

[xchrom]

2. +1

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. No exits, barred windows? Sounds familiar ...

... we had the same thing a hundred years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

Gotta keep those workers at their posts, no matter what.

[JHB]

4. 101 years, 5 months, and 18 days earlier...

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. It was also the second deadliest disaster in New York City – after the burning of the General Slocum on June 15, 1904 – until the destruction of the World Trade Center 90 years later. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three;[1][2][3] the oldest victim was 48, the youngest was 11 year old Mary Goldstien.[4]

Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks[5] – many of the workers who could not escape the burning building jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors to the streets below. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

[HiPointDem]

5. department of 'the more things change, the more...'

[Zalatix]

6. Now THAT's something to riot over.