GUJRANWALA: A massive fire erupting at a plastic factory on Thursday gutted a huge stock of finished products, raw material and machinery, besides heavily damaging its structure, near Lohanwala (Aziz Cross Flyover).

According to workers, the fire broke out in the two-storey Sonica factory, where plastic products including chairs, tables, washing machines, air coolers, motorcycles, molded furniture etc are manufactured, in the morning when they had just started their work. No casualty was reported.

Soon the blaze engulfed the whole factory building, they added.

Muhammad Mustaq, a worker, told Dawn: “Usually, a majority of the workers come early in the morning, but today due to rain and bad weather the labour came late. As soon as I saw the smoke and flames, I rushed to the exit door to save my life.”

Factory fire rages for eight hours

On being informed of the blaze, fire fighters and fire engines of Rescue 1122 and local fire bridge, along with teams of Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) reached the scene and started extinguishing the fire.

Gepco teams suspended power supply to the factory and adjoining buildings to stop the fire from spreading.

Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADCG) Dr Hafsa Rani, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) operations Muhammad Nadeem Khokhar and local parliamentarians also reached there and monitored the situation.

According to the factory owners, Shaid Mughal and Rehmat Ullah Mughal over 0.1 million plastic chairs which were ready for delivery turned into ashes.

They said 10 molding machines were completely destroyed, while a huge quantity of raw plastic material was also gutted. According to their estimates, the loss caused by the blaze might be around Rs500 million.

Rescue 1122 District Emergency Officer Umer Ghuman said it took the fire fighters around eight hours to extinguish the blaze.

CM: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has ordered a probe into the incident, seeking a comprehensive report on it.

The chief minister directed the administration and other agencies concerned to take all possible measures to control the fire and save human lives.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2017