At the scene of yesterday’s fire in Flores (Photo courtesy of La Alameda)
The children – aged seven and ten – were unable to escape the basement where they were sleeping when the fire began. Two adults, thought to be the parents of at least one of the children, were treated in hospital for smoke inhalation and burns. All four came from Bolivia, according to InfoJus Noticias.
Emergency services reported that rescue efforts were hampered because the entrance to the house was partially blocked, and part of the building’s interior had collapsed.
Neighbours told police and local reporters that the house at Páez 2796 was among several illegal workshops producing clothing in the vicinity.
According to the cooperative La Alameda, which fights against slave labour and sweatshops, the house had been reported to authorities as a clandestine textile factory in September 2014.
Head of La Alameda and city legislator Gustavo Vera said that there had never been an investigation into the report, which including information on 30 suspected sweatshops in the capital. Most have unsafe working conditions and produce clothes for street vendors or La Salada, the country’s biggest black market.
Yesterday’s incident drew comparison with another tragedy in 2006, which exposed the hidden and illegal textile industry that operates in Buenos Aires and mainly affects the Bolivian community.
In that case a fire in an illegal sweatshop in Caballito killed six people, including four children. The building had been authorised to produce clothing, but it was vastly over-populated with dozens of mainly-Bolivian families living and working in slave-like conditions.
Though the incident forced the resignation of city government officials in the Workers’ Protection Office, no one has been charged with a crime.
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