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Article

21 Jul 2015

Author:
Bibi van der Zee, Guardian (UK)

Families of fire victims take legal action against factory owners & govt.

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"The inside story of the Kentex disaster: 74 workers died but no one is in prison", 20 July 2015

Two months ago the Kentex factory...was set alight when sparks from a welder’s tool landed in unlabelled flammable chemicals. Of the 74 bodies of workers that were found in the building, 73 have now been identified. A number of workers’ families have signed settlements with the owners of the factory, and the government has ordered payments to more while also endorsing criminal charges against the owners. But at least half the workers’s families are now taking legal action against the owners and the government department that issued the factory’s permit...[H]ow did Kentex manage to get its business permit from the local government or its certificate of compliance from the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE)? The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) had not issued a fire permit to the factory owners in 2014 or 2015, and violations noted in their reports included a failure to service the fire extinguishers and a lack of fire drills, alarm systems and sprinkler systems.

 

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