10 hurt in RMG factory fire rush

Smoke billows out of Arba Textile Ltd housed in a six-storey building in Ashulia, after a fire started at the factory yesterday. Ten workers suffered minor injuries. Photo: Banglar Chokh

Around 10 garment workers sustained minor injuries while rushing to escape a fire in an Ashulia factory yesterday, said eyewitnesses.
“The fire originated in a storeroom of Arba Textile Ltd on the ground-floor of a six-storey building at Gazirchar around 9:45am,” said Senior Station Officer Abdul Hamid of Export Processing Zone Fire Station in Ashulia.
Five fire fighting units brought under control the fire in the 35 feet by 25 feet storeroom, locked from outside, in two and a half hours. The cause of the fire could not be known immediately.
The fabric inside the room was burnt and the finished and packaged goods, stored in adjacent rooms, were destroyed by the water sprayed to douse the fire.
Ashulia Police Station and Industrial Police told The Daily Star that workers of Arba Textile and Hashmatullah Knit Wears Ltd, housed in the building, quickly came out on hearing the fire alarm.
“None of our workers were injured,” said Md Obaidullah, managing director of the Hashmatullah company, situated from the 3rd to the 5th floor.
“But we declared our factory closed for today and will reopen on Saturday,” he said. The Arba company was also closed after the incident.