Walmart supplied by Garment Factory where 112 Workers killed in Fire with Exit Doors Locked

The garment factory in Bangladesh where 112 people were killed in a fire had been making clothes for Wal-Mart, Disney, Sears and other major global retailers - some of whom say they thought they had stopped doing business with the place.

Amid the blackened tables and melted sewing machines at Tazreen Fashions Ltd., an Associated Press reporter discovered clothes and account books Wednesday that indicated the factory was used by a host of U.S. and European retailers.

Among the items discovered: children's shorts with Wal-Mart's Faded Glory label, hooded sweaters marked "Disney Pixar," shorts with hip-hop star Sean Combs' ENYCE tag, and sweaters from the French company Teddy Smith and the Scottish company Edinburgh Woollen Mill. Sears was among the companies listed in the account books.

On Wednesday, police arrested three factory officials suspected of locking in the workers who died in Saturday's blaze on the outskirts of Dhaka. Police Chief Habibur Rahman said the three will be questioned. He said the factory owner was not among those arrested.

About 1,400 people worked at the factory, about 70 percent of them women. Survivors said exit doors were locked, and a fire official said the death toll would have been much lower if the eight-story building had had an emergency exit.

[link to www.cortezjournal.com]