There was no fire alarm at the garment factory outside Florence where Chen Changzhong worked and lived.
Heat finally startled him awake the morning of Dec. 1, 2013. Before him was a maze of burning fabric. He raced through the building, the only worker to survive.
Seven people died at the Teresa Moda factory in Prato, a largely Chinese manufacturing district in Tuscany.
It was the deadliest in living memory, exposing the true costs of cheap clothes and the pursuit of profit over safety in the thriving, illicit economy that has grown in the wake of Chinese immigration to Italy.
The fire spurred authorities to redouble enforcement, with a campaign of factory inspections kicked off last month. It inspired the Chinese consulate in Florence to rally more than 400 Chinese businesses to pursue stronger safety measures.
Five people now face homicide charges including - in a rare move two Italians who owned the building. Prosecutors contend they failed to meet basic safeguards such as fire alarms and adequate fire extinguishers. Defense lawyers say their clients are not guilty.
For years, thousands of Chinese migrants have been smuggled to Italy, finding work at factories that ignore basic safety standards, and billions of euros have been smuggled back to China, police investigations show.
The savings on tax and labor have given businesses that break the law a crushing competitive advantage.
In a sign of the growing global impact of Chinese crime, the justice ministers of China and Italy last month signed a memorandum of cooperation on investigations in the fight against transnational organized crime.
"Chinese communities are very closed and difficult to penetrate," said Franco Roberti, Italy's chief anti-mafia prosecutor. "Until now, we haven't had the possibility of relating with Chinese investigative authorities."
Gino Reolon, the provincial commander of Italy's financial police, said Prato serves as a laboratory for the study of Chinese organized crime. "It's like a virus, a new disease," he said.
More than 40,000 Chinese live in Prato, some 15,000 illegally. The area has one of the highest concentrations of Chinese in Europe. Many migrants started their own businesses and created a kind of outsourcing in which merchandise wasn't exported; China itself was.
Teresa Moda was one of thousands of Chinese factories that churn out cheap "fast fashion" garments, taking advantage of the proximity to Europe, their main market, and the cachet of the "Made in Italy" brand. Yet the clothes are made by Chinese workers in Chinese factories.
