RMG owners require Accord nod for fire tools’ designs

Garment factory owners will have to take approval for designs of fire alarm, sprinkler system and auto-hydrant from Accord on Fire and Building Safety, a platform of EU retailers, before installing the systems in their factories, according to the remediation guidelines announced by Accord on Wednesday.
‘If the installation work is done without reviewed designs, the system might not be recognised by Accord,’ the guidelines said.
In the remediation guidelines for the readymade garment factories in Bangladesh, Accord asked factory owners to get approval from the initiative before entering into a contract with any firm to conduct detailed engineering assessment of their factory buildings.
Accord has set standards for the consulting firms which will conduct the DEA.
The firms should have experience of more than five years in the relevant field and engineers concerned should have experience of more than 10 years, the guidelines said.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Shahidullah Azim said that the announcement made by Accord was positive.
He said that due to the remediation guidelines provided by Accord there would be no ambiguity in the remediation process.
‘We have agreed with Accord and requested the initiative to provide the factories which have not enough capacity to comply with the Accord-set standards with remediation fund,’ Azim said.
The platform did not provide any list of consulting firms to conduct DEA but said the final DEA report must be approved by Accord and no retrofitting work would be started without approval from the retailers’ group.
Meanwhile, Accord gave a list mentioning the names of 55 companies to source fire equipments but said that the list was not an endorsement or approval by Accord.
‘The list of suppliers we have compiled to help factories to source fire equipment is based on the information provided by the suppliers. We do not make any quality check during the process of enlistment,’ Accord said.
The remediation guidelines of Accord suggested installing fire door certified by UL, FM, Intertek and Warrington and manufactured by an authorised fire door manufacturing facility.
If any factory installs uncertified doors and does not meet the Accord-set standards, Accord will not allow the installation and the factory will have to replace the doors with certified fire doors, the platform said.
‘If a factory wants to confirm the acceptance of a fire door prior to purchasing, they can send the entire manufacturer’s literature including testing certification to Accord,’ it said.
There is currently no authorised manufacturer of certified fire doors in Bangladesh and no authorised Bangladesh-based certifier of fire doors or fire door manufacturing facilities, Accord stated.
The Accord guidelines also suggested that the factories should remove all collapsible gates from the doorways and stairways permanently and equip fire doors with security hardware and locks which permit locking from the outside where the door can still be opened from the inside.
After the Rana Plaza factory collapse on April 24, 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, the EU brands and retailers including H&M, Carrefour and Mango formed Accord.
Accord in February this year started inspection in the Bangladeshi garment factories that supply to the Accord’s members and completed the primary safety assessment in September.
During the inspection, structural integrity at 17 buildings was found below acceptable level of safety and the platform recommended temporary evacuation of the buildings.
The platform also identified more than 80,000 faults in 1,106 units during the assessment.