CHATTOGRAM, Mar 5: S Alam Group Chairman and Managing Director (MD) Mohammad Saiful Alam Masud said that the supply from S Alam Refined Sugar Industries will be started within two-three days as the stock of refined sugar is intact.
In response to the question whether there will be an impact on the price of sugar in the market, he said, It will take two to three days to go into production. Putting out the fire is our main goal now.
There will be no shortage of sugar.
Mohammad Hossain, GM (HR) of S Alam Group said, "One lakh tonne of sugar is required throughout the country during the month of Ramadan. We have much more than that. We still have about 10-15 days of finished (refined) sugar on hand. Finished sugar warehouses and sugar refining machinery units remain intact."
Meanwhile, due to the carbon and oxygen contained in the unrefined sugar, it is taking time to extinguish the fire completely, the Fire Service said.
Abdullah Harun Pasha, Deputy Assistant Director of the Fire Service, told the Daily Observer, "It was all unrefined sugar.
Unrefined sugar is basically a compound of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Both carbon and oxygen help in fire. At temperatures above 350 degrees Celsius, raw sugar melts and turns into volatile chemicals (hazardous chemicals).
Entering the factory at 3 pm on Tuesday, warehouse number one, about four hundred feet from the main gate, was found burning.
S Alam officials said that the number one warehouse is 65,700 square feet. The entire road from the main gate to the warehouse is covered with a reddish black mud-like liquid from the melting of raw sugar.
"We are now trying to put out the fire so that the fire does not spread to the sugar mills and other warehouses," S Alam Group Chief Land Resources Officer Md Mostain Billah Adil told reporters at the scene.
When asked whether he fears sabotage behind the fire, he said, "The government has made an inquiry committee." Various agencies of the government including the Fire Service are working. Now we are only thinking about protecting the factory."
When asked about the amount of sugar in the warehouse that caught fire and the damage, he said, "There was about one and a half lakh tonne of unrefined sugar. The amount of loss can be more than BDT 1000 crore. I can confirm the amount of damage right now."
According to Fire Service sources, the fire fighting robot Luff-60 is being used to prevent the spread of sugar factory fire. With this machine, water is being sprinkled at a speed of 1000 liters per minute. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard are assisting the Fire Service in controlling the fire.
Meanwhile, a 7-member investigation committee headed by the Additional District Magistrate has been constituted in this fire incident. Additional Divisional Commissioner General and Acting Divisional Commissioner Anwar Pasha formed this committee.
