Factory fire kills 55 in Morocco

A fire roared through a mattress factory in a poor section of Casablanca, killing up to 55 workers and injuring at least 12 others.

A rescue chief said firefighters arrived hours late and that the emergency exit of the building was blocked.

The fire broke out in the four-story building yesterday in an industrial neighborhood outside of sprawling Casablanca, the economic centre of Morocco.

Firefighters said that 54 people were killed and up to 24 injured. The state news agency and city authorities put the death toll at 55.

The head of the Red Crescent rescue operation, Jawad el-Mejdoubi, said firefighters arrived some two hours after the blaze began, with other rescuers showing up four hours after it started.

He said they found the factory’s emergency exit blocked and windows with iron bars, and that it took more than eight hours to fully extinguish the blaze.

“I don’t think we realised how big the fire was,” said Mr El-Mejdoubi.

“Twisted bodies, faces disfigured by fire ... It’s the worst fire in a very long time,” he said, speaking in the emergency ward of Ibn Rochd Hospital.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, who visited the scene, said investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire and looking into what work conditions and security measures prevailed at the factory.

Local authorities blamed chemicals in the building for adding fury to the flames which quickly spread from the ground floor to the upper stories.

Many victims were trapped in the spiral stairwell of the building, according to firefighters.

Families of victims and one person who escaped said the doors had been shut, preventing any chance of escaping.

Police dogs and seismic equipment were brought in to locate victims in the partially collapsed building. However, heat and thick smoke impeded the rescue operation. Mr Benmoussa also said the inflammable chemicals delayed the rescue by several hours.

Some 80 rescuers joined an estimated 200 firefighters battling the blaze which rekindled hours after it had been tamped out. More than eight hours later, thick plumes of smoke billowed from the bowels of the building and firemen, using a crane, were still hosing down the rubble.

Several thousand anxious people gathered around the building while the rescue effort was in progress. Some merchandise from the factory – wood, tissue and filling – was piled in a nearby clearing, untouched by flames.

“There was so much yelling, so many cries of the families of victims,” said Mr El-Mejdoubi, the Red Crescent chief, describing the frantic scene.