Casablanca Mattress Update

THE MOROCCO MATTRESS FACTORY FIRE IN CASABLANCA (Firegeezer story HERE) yesterday has brought about the arrests of the company’s owner and his son who was the plant manager.

AP photo

The death toll has been confirmed at 55 so far with 17 injuries. The fire was caused by an malfunctioning electric saw on the ground floor where foam rubber, wood and glue were stored.

It has been determined that the factory officials had:

locked all the exits to prevent employee theft, thus preventing escape from the fire.
placed heavy wire mesh guards over all the windows.
left all fire extinguishers empty.
failed to maintain equipment, notably the saw, used in the business.

In some cases, men used compressed gas bottles to break the wire barriers away from the windows and leap to safety. But most of the women were afraid to jump from the upper floors and perished. 35 of the 55 deaths were women.

Firefighters had to breach the walls in order to gain entry to the building because of the barricaded doors.

“The plant’s owner, Adil Moufarreh, and his son Abdelali Moufarreh, who was the manager, have been taken into custody after having been questioned by police,” said a security official. “We confirmed during our examination that the owners of the premises failed to respect legal requirements for this kind of industry including staff training,” he said.

The Associated Press reports:

Firefighters said many victims were trapped in the spiral stairwell of the building. A 29-year-old worker who managed to escape said many deaths occurred on the third floor, where women sewed.

“We ran to the door. It was blocked, to the elevator, it was blocked. Then, oops, the lights went out,” the woman, Rachida Darif, told The Associated Press.

She saved herself by crawling through a space to the roof, then jumping down from a neighboring building that was under construction. She used a construction cord to lower herself part way, she said.