The fire that broke out in a Chinese-run textile factory in the Tuscan town of Prato on Sunday will bring the issue of factory worker safety onto the agenda of the European Union. It comes after a spate of fires and other disasters in textile factories in Southeast Asian countries, most notably in Bangladesh.
The fire broke out on Sunday night and quickly engulfed the building, in which 11 people reportedly lived in poor conditions. The Italian town of Prato, just north of Florence, is well known for its high concentration of industrial units and has been a centre for the Italian garment trade since the 12th century. The area is now known to play host to a number of Chinese-run textile factories producing garments for export across Europe.
The president of Tuscany, Enrico Rossi, made clear that this tragedy was a direct result of factory owners operating illegal facilities. He told the Guardian: “This is a disgrace for all of us, because we have to recognise this reality for what it is: the biggest concentration of illegal employment in northern and central Italy.”
Meanwhile, the secretary general of the Florence and Prato section of trade union CISL posted on his Facebook page that possibly thousands of people were living and working in conditions of “near-slavery” in the region.
The roof of the factory collapsed during the course of the fire, possibly contributing to the loss of life of seven of the 11 people who were reportedly sleeping in the building.
On Monday, police raided another factory in the town and found shocking conditions within the factory, where workers were clearly living. Local newspaper Il Tirreno shared pictures released by the Police showing piles of mattresses, cooking equipment, and makeshift living quarters, which appear to be built from plasterboard and look like an unfinished, but very much lived-in home.
In another photograph, bicycles are perched alongside out-of-use textile machinery, while exposed wiring hangs from precariously positioned beams at head height.
The issue of workers’ rights across the EU is now very much in the spotlight, and the UK is not immune from scrutiny. Last month, a raid by immigration officials on a chicken processing plant on the outskirts of Preston revealed scores of illegal workers, some of whom might have been illegally trafficked and forced to work as slaves. Two men from the Czech Republic told homeless charity Thames Reach how they had been forced to work at the factory, to hand over their wages at the end of their long working hours, and then to sleep five to a room in a house.
The living conditions, and thereby the risk of fire, are likely to be high in such overcrowded conditions, raising the question of when similar tragedies will befall other countries across Europe.
Related posts:
Download the Fire Safety in 2023 eBook, keeping you up to date with the biggest news and prosecution stories from around the industry. Chapters include important updates such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and an overview of the new British Standard for the digital management of fire safety information.
Plus, we explore the growing risks of lithium-ion battery fires and hear from experts in disability evacuation and social housing.
I feel for the people working and living in these conditions but it amazes me that there aren’t more fires given the fact that people are living in these factories. Normal human actions like cooking inside a building full of chemical dyes and fabrics is bound to end poorly. The article mentioned that these are illegal factories so, how does a local government put an end to this? If they don’t know the business exists, how do they check up on it?
Same here, SafenSane. It’s amazing, true, but the whole situation is just sad. I pray that not more of these fires break out in such facilities, but I do hope that incidents like these serve as an example for tighter and stricter controls.