Blanket factory gutted in city

Firefighters try to douse the blaze at a factory in Old Dhaka yesterday. Photo: Star

A blanket factory on the Dhaka Central Jail premises in the capital's Chawkbazar area was gutted by a fire yesterday afternoon.
The fire broke out at the tin-shed, one-storey Kazla Woolen Mills Factory around 4:20pm. Eight fire fighting units doused the blaze over one hour, said Maj Mohammad Zihadul Islam, acting director general of Fire Service and Civil Defence.  
"We don't know yet what caused the fire but an investigation is on. No one is reportedly injured by the fire," he said.
Though owned by the jail authority, the factory and the godown stand next to the northern boundary wall of the compound. Taking lease from the jail authorities, private entrepreneurs run the factory with their own labour.
Around 700 workers were working when the fire broke out. All of them came out safely, said factory sources.
"The fire might be caused by an electric short-circuit," said Waresat Hussain Belal, owner of the factory and also a parliament member.
The fire spread quickly as the woolen materials kept there were highly inflammable, he added.
There were enough fire safety measures but workers might not have used those as smoke engulfed the whole area immediately after the fire spread, claimed the owner.
However, talking to The Daily Star, several workers said the factory did not have an adequate number of fire extinguishers.
"We usually store water in drums. We use the water to extinguish fire, if any," they said.
The fire gutted more than two lakh blankets most of which were produced for the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, claimed Delwar Hossain, a factory official.
Hasan Ali, a factory worker, told  The Daily Star that the cutting machine caused the fire.
"We tried to douse the fire with extinguishers and water but it spread quickly over the factory and its godown immediately," he added.
Contacted, Inspector General (IG) of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin said though the prisoner compound was very close to the factory, the fire did not touch the compound.
"We were present inside the jail compound and no disorder took place there," he said.
A probe committee will be formed today with home ministry representatives to investigate whether it was an accident or a sabotage, the IG, Prisons said.