Emran Hossain Emon, Savar

A raging fire in the early hours yesterday gutted almost the entire plant of Kung King Textile (BD) Company Ltd at Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) in Savar.

Some 50 workers were injured in the incident but no death was reported.

After hours of strenuous fight throughout the day, firemen managed to shrink the 70-foot flames to seven- to eight-foot by the evening but were yet to extinguish the blaze completely.

"Almost every thing in the factory was burnt to ashes, causing a loss of around 200 crore taka," said Tapan Kumar Majumder, chief of admin and import of the factory. "We've to start all over again from zero," he added.

The fire started spewing from the plant's dyeing section at around 2:45am, forcing around 200 night-shift workers at the spinning section to rush out of the building in panic. The dyeing section had been closed at 2:00pm.

"I saw huge smokes gushing out of the dyeing section and then noticed the blaze. I shouted out to every body to run out of the factory," said Sadekul Islam, a spinning worker.

Admin chief Tapan said, "The fire might have been sparked off by an electric short circuit at the dyeing section, but it is still a speculation."

When the fire fighters reached the scene at 3:15am, the blaze had already engulfed more than half of the factory. The fire brigade operators first tried to save two boilers from blasting and to check the spread of fire. After three hours of struggle, they managed to bring the inferno under control.

As the hissing inferno leapt up to the sky, about 500 workers from the nearby factories came to the scene running and joined hands with firemen and Kung King staff to douse the fire.

"I was on duty at the old DEPZ pump, about one kilometre off the scene, when I first noticed the red tongues of the blaze licking the sky. I spent no time in reaching the spot. But the heat was so high that we had to stay about 100 yards away from the burning building," described Maheb Hossain, assistant plumber at the DEPZ.

Fearing that the raging flames may spread out, employees of the adjacent factories also started to sprinkle water on outer walls of their factory buildings.

Though the fire fighters had managed to tame the raging fire, small flames were still burning at several points of the factory last night. Smokes with acrid stench of burnt chemicals, acids and rubber covered several hundred yards around the building.

"The fire is under control and we are now damping it down, which may take one or two days more," said Dhaka Fire Brigade and Civil Defence (FBCD) Deputy Director Selim Newaz Bhuiyan to The Daily Star.

"It is tough to predict how long we have to wait to put the fire out completely. It is because a huge quantity of petroleum by-products, acrylic, artificial fibres, chemicals, acids, liquid rubber and other inflammable objects used in spinning are fuelling the blaze," explained Dhaka FBCD Deputy Assistant Director Nurul Haque.

The fire fighters were facing problem, as water slipped over the petroleum by-products and synthetic materials, making it impossible to get the smouldering stacks wet. A total of 80 firemen from 12 units including the DEPZ, Savar, Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Tongi, Gazipur and the FBCV Dhaka Headquarters were engaged in the fight.

The dyeing, administration, twister, store, spare parts room and part of the spinning section of the factory were completely burnt down. Some walls of the factory had already collapsed by last night and the rest developed big cracks and were about to fall.

Kung King Textile (BD) Company Ltd, a Taiwanese-owned company, was set up at the DEPZ in 1998 on a 32,000 square metre land and employs over 800 workers.