ILRF interview with Lovely who survived a fire in a garment factory
On February 23, 2006, a factory fire at the KTS Textile Factory in city of Chittagong, Bangladesh, claimed the lives of 63 trapped garment workers, including young girls. Locked exits prevented workers from escaping the fire. One media source reported that it was possible the main gate was intentionally locked at the time of the fire to prevent theft from the factory. Other sources reported that there was no fire safety equipment at the factory, nor had there ever been a fire drill.
Lovely, who was 11 years old at the time of the fire, barely survived. Her face is deformed and she suffered burns all over her body. She appears frail. ILRF spoke with her in Dhaka, Bangladesh, five years after the fire. She never received compensation for her injuries. Just 17 years old at the time of our interview with her, she describes a ruined life.
KTS produced for the U.S. companies Uni Hosiery, Mermain International, ATT Enterprise, VIDA Enterprise, Leslee Scott, Inc, Ambiance, Andrew Scott.
ILRF: We can start with just your name, and how old are you, and maybe where you come from.
Lovely: My name is Lovely. I'm from Banskhali, in Chittagong, and I'm 17 years old now.
ILRF: And tell me about your family, do you have brothers and sisters, maybe a dog?
Lovely: Yes, I have a family. We’re two sisters and two brothers, and I have my parents.
ILRF: And are you the oldest, or the middle or the youngest?
Lovely: I'm the second one of five.
ILRF: Talk with me about why you went to work in the factory.
Lovely: I'm from a poor family, and I didn't have enough money to go to school. And my parents couldn't afford to send me to school. And they needed support. And for those reasons I had to go to work in a garment factory.
ILRF: What was your favorite subject in school?
Lovely: When I was in school, my favorite subject was math.
ILRF: Why did you like math?
Lovely: Because I used to work in business, that is why I liked math. When I was five years old—from 5 to 11—I sold what’s called Mouri in Bangla [a type of fried rice].
ILRF: So you went to the factory. How did you apply for the job?
Lovely: I was told by someone that KTS is appointing workers, so I went there and they asked for my name, my age, and my father's name, and they did not ask anything else, and I got job.
ILRF: And when did you start the job?
Lovely: I started to work in the garment factory in 2006.
ILRF: And so then you were 14, or 15, or how old were you?
Lovely: I was 11 plus years old.
ILRF: And why did you decide on KTS, did you have family that worked there? How did you know KTS?
Lovely: I decided to get a job in KTS because other factories did not appoint workers my age. So only KTS was appointing workers my age, child workers. That is why I chose to get a job in KTS.
ILRF: What kind of job did you have when you were at KTS?
Lovely: I worked in "Finishing" as a helper.
ILRF: What does that mean, what did you do?
Lovely: Just helping, packing goods.
ILRF: What were you packing? Were they shirts, or pants?
Lovely: They were socks.
ILRF: Did the whole factory make socks?
Lovely: No. I don't know about the whole building. I can only tell you about the second floor, because I used to work on the second floor. And I worked there for only 23 days. And on the 23rd day, a fire broke out in the factory.
ILRF: How many other workers were there with you?
Lovely: On my floor, on the second floor where I used to work, there were about 400 workers.
ILRF: What did you think about your job, did you like it? Did you hate it?
Lovely: I liked my work, what I used to do.
ILRF: Why did you like it?
Lovely: Because I hadn’t done that job before, and it was a new job for me. That is why I liked it.
ILRF: And so the day that there was the fire, what happened?
Lovely: First the electricity went, so there was [inaudible]. Then the factory, they had a generator, so they started the generator. After half an hour, when the electricity came on, the person who was responsible for generator did not switch off the generator. So for that reason, the fire broke out in the factory.
Interpreter and Lovely talk.
Interpreter: I just asked her, according to the information we had, a boiler burst on the ground floor. She said, she doesn’t know about that.
Lovely: The fire took place on the ground floor, and soon the fire broke out in the factory. The security guard, he just locked the main gate, and went away. So not even one person was able to escape through that gate.
Interpreter: The question was, do you know how many total workers were working during that time? The answer is, I don't know.
ILRF: Why did they lock the gate?
Lovely: The door had been locked before the fire broke out. The security guard, he went to get tea, nearby from a tea store. So, when he saw that the fire broke out on the ground floor, he did not come back.
Interpreter and Lovely talk.
Lovely: After the fire broke out on the ground floor, nobody knew upstairs that there was a fire on the ground floor. Suddenly we saw that there was some smoke coming up, but we thought that it was from another factory, located nearby to our factory. We thought that the smoke was coming from that factory.
ILRF: Did the security normally lock the doors?
Lovely: Yeah. It was normal for the main door of the factory to be locked, all the time.
ILRF: And did they lock the doors between the floors as well, or just the main door?
Interpreter: I already asked this question, and the answer is no.
ILRF: Did they lock the doors because they didn’t want you to leave?
Lovely: I think that they used to lock the door all the time because most of the workers were my age, and they thought that we might leave the factory any time, as we were kids. That is why they always locked the main door.
ILRF: So then, what happened, you saw smoke and then what?
Lovely: When we saw the smoke, and after more smoke came, then, along with the other workers, we tried to escape by way of the stairs. I fell down because somebody pushed me. I don't know after that what happened afterwards.
ILRF: Why were they pushing?
Lovely: Everyone was hurrying to go because there was a fire, so everyone was in such a hurry. I don’t think they pushed me intentionally, it happened randomly, so I just fell down on the stairs.
ILRF: Then what happened? At some point maybe you remember waking up, or what happened?
Lovely: I don't know. I cannot remember anything. I just remember that after two days, I was conscious in a hospital. I found myself in hospital. I don't know who took me there.
ILRF: Did you see other people from the factory in the hospital when you woke up?
Lovely: Yes, I saw many of them.
ILRF: What had happened to them?
Lovely: Some of them died. And some of them recovered and went home.
ILRF: Then what happened when you were in the hospital? Did your family come to see you? Did the factory managers come to see you or talk with you?
Lovely: When I was in hospital, my family, they came to me, and they were beside me. But, I don't know if the management came or. They didn't even ask where we were. I didn't see any management.
Break in the interview.
ILRF: What was the year of the fire?
Lovely: It was in 2006, in February.
ILRF: So since 2006, there have been many other factory fires. Why do you think there are there so many fires in Bangladesh, and why are workers being hurt in the fires?
Interpreter: She doesn't have any idea about that.
ILRF: What should have been different in your factory when the fire happened? How do we prevent workers from being hurt, or dying in fires?
Lovely: I think that if they always keep the gates open, then even if there is fire, I don't feel like so many lives will be injured, like mine.
ILRF: Because you were injured, was there any compensation that you received, maybe from the factory, or BGMEA [Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association]?
Lovely: I haven't received anything.
ILRF: So you worked for 23 days, and then on the 23rd day, you were 11 years old, not even 12 years old, and now you're not able to work for the rest of your life?
Lovely: I can't do anything.
ILRF: What does that mean for your family?
Lovely: It’s just that I became burden for them, so they mistreat me. It's like, if they give me food one day, maybe the next three days I won’t get food, even from my family. So my family is not supporting me either.
ILRF: Do you know who was wearing the socks, after you made them?
Lovely: I don't have any idea. It might be, I could get some idea, if I could have had a chance to work a few more days there.
Interpreter: See, I can't do interview… [crying]
ILRF: It is my understanding that these were socks bought by the U.S. government. They were used in U.S. prisons for very, very cheap. And there are rules, and promises that no one should ever, at 12 years old, have to be making clothes for people in America. At 12 years old, you should be studying math. What do you think, maybe when you were 11 or 10, what did you dream about, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Lovely: I wanted to study as much as I could, and get a good job and support my family, but my wish was never fulfilled. I couldn't do that.
ILRF: And so, it’s been maybe five years, right? Do you still have health problems?
Lovely: Many times I have to been to the hospital because it was hurting inside. Neither of my parents had any money, so they borrowed money for me from my neighborhood and they took me to the hospital. And, see, I cannot move my fingers like this, so it is always like this. And after the fire, and the injury, I learned, and it was very hard, I learned how to eat rice, or food with these hands.
ILRF: Maybe people in your family work in the garment factories, and there are still many unsafe factories. Do you have anything to say maybe to the people that run the factories, or that buy from the factories?
Lovely: My family members still work in the factory, so not only for my family, but for all those that are working in the factory, on behalf of them, I want to say, please keep the factory a safe place to work. I don't want to see anyone else like me.
ILRF: Is there anything else you want to say?
Lovely: I want to live a normal life, like other girls. But I can't do that.
ILRF: Thank you, very much for riding all night on the bus, and for sharing your story. We will share your story. We will make sure that the people in the U.S. know your story and the story of so many others in your family that are still working in the garment factories. And we are working very hard to try to make sure that no more fires happen in Bangladesh.