"Philippines factory fire: 72 workers need not have died", 8 June 2015 

On 13 May, a fierce blaze took hold of Kentex Manufacturing’s slipper factory in Valenzuela city, north of the Philippines capital, Manila. The fire lasted seven hours and claimed the lives of 72 workers. It was the worst factory fire thePhilippines has ever seen. Only 45 workers escaped...The factory was required to have a raft of permits from different bodies including a business permit from the local authority, a fire permit from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and a certificate of compliance from the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE). It should also have had a special permit for the welding that caused the fire. But the factory either ignored or was allowed to circumvent many of the safety procedures. Regarding the welding permit, Kentex’s lawyer says the work was done by a third party and “we relied on their manifestation of being experts and authorities in their line of work, we already assumed that they would secure all necessary permits and requirements for them to do their jobs and execute the agreement to fix our shutter doors”. The fire permit? Although the company told us that it had received a permit, which, it claims, bolsters its statement that there were “sufficient fire exits”, the BFP says it never issued a permit. In fact, it had given Kentex a warning “notice to comply” in July. (We asked Kentex’s lawyer about this apparently conflicting evidence; he has not yet replied.)...The Valenzuela fire happened on the second anniversary of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, created to maintain minimum safety standards in the Bangladesh textile industry, after the Rana Plaza disaster in which more than 1,100 workers lost their lives. But given its domestic nature – Kentex produced slippers for the local market – Valenzuela is not receiving much international attention. However, it highlights the same risks of death at work as Rana Plaza, and the Tazreen factory fire, also in Bangladesh, in 2012.