The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a platform of European retailers, foundmodest cracks in three factories in its post-earthquake safety assessment in 61 factories. After the 7.9 earthquakes that hit Nepal on April 25, the Accord launched inspection to identify the immediate impact of the earthquake and will inspect approximately 200 factories, which were deemed structurally the most vulnerable from its initial inspections. “We’ve so far inspected 61 factories after the earthquake and found modest cracks in three of those factories,” Brad Loewen, chief safety inspector of Accord on Fire and Building Safety, told the Dhaka Tribune. The Accord is following up with the factories, the brands, labour partners, and the Inspector General to ensure that they are made safe, he said. The factory owners have to hire engineers to investigate the cracks, to check whether it could pose any threat to the workers’ safety or not, said Brad. “The owners have already been asked to look into matter.” Accord Executive Director Rob Wayss said, “The Accord is implementing measures to determine if buildings, we have inspected and which are producing for Accord signatory companies have been structurally affected by the earthquakes.” ‘We’ve requested those factories which required a detailed engineering assessment from the Accord initial structural inspection to have the engineers their company is working with on the DEA to conduct an immediate impact inspection to determine if the earthquake has caused any structural damage to the building where the factory is housed,’ said Rob. The platform also requested its signatory companies to share any related information they have obtained regarding the listed factories with the assigned Accord case handler. The safety issues came under spotlight after the Rana Plaza factory that killed over 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 people on April 24, 2013.
