Fire incidents are happening one after another in the factories owned by S Alam Group, one of the largest industrial groups based in Chittagong. Many questions have arisen in the public mind about whether these fires are mere accidents, or sabotage or something else.
Some are also insisting on investigating the reasons why there are frequent fires in the establishments owned by S Alam Group. However, the officials of the company term the incidents normal and claim that there was no negligence on their part.
Despite the claims, the price of sugar went up after the fire in the sugar warehouse of S Alam Group. On the pretext of shortage of supply, the price increased up to Tk5 per kg.
In the last two months, at least three factories of the industrial group have caught fire. In March, fires broke out in the under-construction facility named, “Taja Multipurpose Cold Storage Limited”, and “S Alam Refined Sugar Industries Limited”.
Latest, a fire engulfed a warehouse of “S Alam Vegetable Oil Limited”. The warehouse is just 10 feet away from the oil storage building. Fire Service officials said it would have been difficult to extinguish the fire if it had spread to the oil storage. However, it was possible to avoid major damage.
On March 4, a fire broke out in warehouse-1 of the sugar refinery in Karnaphuli Thana area of Chittagong. After about six days on March 9, the Fire Service officials officially announced that the fire was completely extinguished.
The warehouse that caught fire was storing about 100,000 tons of raw sugar. About 80% of the sugar could be saved, said the officials of the company.
On March 1, the under construction cold storage caught fire. It is located next to the office of the Power Development Board (PDB) on Syed Shah Road under Baklia police station.
No one was injured in the fire, but extensive damage was done to the cold store. Ten units from three fire stations brought the fire under control after about three hours.
About the latest fire, Deputy Assistant Director of Fire Service in Chittagong Abdur Razzak told Bangla Tribune that after receiving the news, we started working to control the fire at 8:27am and fully extinguished it at 10am. A total of eight units of four stations worked to control the fire.
He said: “Oil was stored next to the building on fire. If the fire spread there, it would have been difficult to control the blaze. The fire was brought under control after two hours of effort. The cause of the fire and the amount of damage will be known later subject to investigation.”
