Fire destroys garment warehouse in Ashulia

The fourth-floor warehouse of Manami Fashions Ltd in Ashulia goes up in flames after a fire broke out at the factory early Tuesday. Photo: STAR

A garment warehouse was gutted in a fire early yesterday at Kabirpur in Ashulia on the outskirts of Dhaka.
However, no death or injury of workers was reported as there was no worker at the factory of Manami Fashions during the fire.
Locals said the fire broke out at the warehouse at the fourth floor of the five-storey garment factory building at around 2:30am.
Owners were yet to estimate the cost of the damage.
Fire fighters rushed to the spot at around 3am and brought the fire under control after three hours, said Abdullah Al Mamun, a deputy assistant director of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence.
“But, still we don't know where the fire was originated from. There was no electric short-circuit,” he said, adding that all the fabrics of the warehouse were burnt into ashes.
The fire could not spread to the other floors while six units of the fire fighters were engaged in taming the fire, Mamun said.
A sewing helper of the factory, Nurunnahar, said their last shift ended at 7:30pm and then all the workers left the factory.
“But, after the midnight I saw the flames of the fire,” said Nurunnahar, who lives at a rented house near the factory.
She said their factory is a compliant one and the workers always get their salaries on time.
A security official of the factory said he also does not know anything about the source of the fire.
“Security guards were on duty,” he said, asking not to be named.
Amir Hossain, a director of the company, said around 750 people work in the factory. “There was no electricity connection in the warehouse,” Hossain said.
“I don't think it was an act of sabotage as still we don't know the source of the fire,” he said.
Manami Fashions, which started production nearly five years ago, exports garments worth $15 million a year, he said.
Habibullah Habib, a compliance officer of Centro Tex Ltd, the owning company of Manami Fashions Ltd, said the factory mainly produces clothing items like jackets, trousers, t-shirts and polo shirts for global brands such as Kmart, Liddle and Wilson.
The incident will affect the lead-time as almost all the fabrics, gutted in the fire, were imported to make the garment items.
“We will have to collect the same fabrics as soon as possible from either the local market or abroad to make the shipment on time,” he said.
He said it was the first such incident in their factory and the cost of damage could not be estimated immediately.