A garment factory was gutted at Jigatola in the capital yesterday evening.
Fire Service and Civil Defence officials said around 5:30pm some staffs saw sparks from a electric wire and soon a fire spread to the entire first floor of the five-storey building.
On receiving information, 10 units of firefighters rushed to the spot and doused the fire after one-hour’s efforts.
The workers were safe as the garment was closed after the day shift at 4:30pm, said Major Mahbub, director of the fire service. A finishing supervisor Mizanur Rahman sustained minor injuries while trying to douse the flame.
“A few staffs were there to pack up the day’s work during the incident,” said Shahnoor Islam, the owner of the factory named Green Leaf.
The five-storey building housed another factory Bengal Group Garments on the third and the fourth floor but blazes could not up there.The Bengal Garments was also closed during the incident.
Owner of the factory said the small garments mainly produce jeans for local market, apart from exporting some jacket items.
“We have a consignment of 20,000 ready jackets for shipment next day. Most of the wears have been gutted,” he said.
A total of 250 workers work at the garment which is situated on the first and the second floor.
“Huge smoke engulfed the area with the fire making the locals panicked. The garment has fire extinguishers but those were unused as the factory was almost empty during the incident,” said the fire official.