Mother’s final words come in a shoe

When the blaze engulfed the Rupganj Shezan Factory Thursday, one of its workers Mustakim, 18, was yearning to hear from his mother who worked on the 3rd floor of the building. The agonising wait came to an end when a shoe of hers reached him that said, "Nobody can save us now. Goodbye."

"My mother had called me and was mourning that we will never meet again. Half an hour later, she sent her final message in a shoe," Mustakim said.

He said the remnants of the body of her mother were yet to be found. 

On the 3rd floor of the factory, Mustakim's mother Fatima, her section boss and at least 20-25 people at that moment were waiting for the inevitable.

"Both staircases on that section of the floor were locked and lifts were off too. There was no way they could try to escape," Mustakim told The Business Standard.

He also noted that they spotted the fire creeping from below in the afternoon Thursday.

Mustakim with her mother's photo. Photo: TBS

"It rose gradually. By 12 pm Friday it reached 2nd floor and by afternoon the blaze reached the 3rd floor. At first, the firefighters could not enter because of the excessive heat," he said. 

Mustakim was rescued and was told to visit the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for obvious reasons.

Mustakim had joined the factory at the age of 14, and he had been working there for four years without fire exits or proper fire fighting equipment.

"My mother had been working for three years there. Each shift of the factory consisted of about 100-150 workers," he added.

The deadly blaze killed at least 52 people and many remain missing.