Md Saiful Alam Masud, chairman and managing director of S Alam Group, has assured that S Alam Refined Sugar Industries Ltd will resume supply of this commodity within the next one or two days, as their stockpile of refined sugar remained unharmed in the recent fire.

Making the remarks on Tuesday morning while visiting the scene of sugar mill fire at Karnaphuli upazila of Chattogram, Alam told journalists that a segment of dishonest businessmen could try to trigger volatility in the sugar market using the fire incident as an excuse.

He further said, “There are some businessmen who will want to take advantage of this situation. But we have enough stock of sugar at the moment to resume supply. The situation will get back to normal in a few days.”

When asked whether the fire incident would impact sugar supply during the holy month of Ramadan, Alam said, “A warehouse caught fire, burning down sugar raw material. That was unrefined sugar.

“We will begin production a day or two later. We have finished the product in stock, and production will resume. Those will cover at least a week of supply. There is no shortage of sugar right now.”

Echoing the same, S Alam Group General Manager (Corporate) Mohammad Akhter Hossain said, “The fire incident will have no impact on sugar prices in the market. We will be able to hit full production in the next couple of days.

“There will be no shortage of supply in the market. Not only in Ramadan, we have 6-7 tonnes in the pipeline. Just one warehouse caught fire, and it burned down. There are more warehouses, and they remain unharmed.”

When asked about the amount of damage caused by the fire, the S Alam official said, “We cannot say anything for certain right now. Information about the extent of damage is unavailable until we receive the probe report.

“We will also be able to learn about the cause of the fire at that time.”

It should be noted that there is confusion regarding the capacity of the warehouse that burned down. Following the fire incident on Monday, the mill authorities initially said the warehouse had 65,000 tonnes of capacity. Later at night, they said the figure is 1 lakh tonnes.

The following morning, they said the figure is 1.5 lakh tonnes.

When reporters asked for comments, the senior S Alam official avoided commenting on this matter.

When asked about the fire safety issue in the mill, Akhter Hossain said, “I do not want to comment on this particular issue. You [journalists] are on the spot, see whether we have a lapse.

“We had everything needed to ensure fire safety. All key measures were implemented.”

However, Chattogram Fire Service Assistant Director Md Abdul Malek said, “Despite being a large establishment, S Alam Sugar Mill did not have the required level of fire safety systems. The arrangements should have been better. We had to fetch water from far away.

“The nearest reservoir was risky. There should have been fire hydrants in the area, as it would have made it easier for us to extinguish the fire.”

2 to 3 days to douse the blaze

The fire at the S Alam Group-owned sugar refinery factory in Chattogram could not be doused even after 24 hours.

As the raw materials of sugar are flammable, it was not possible to completely extinguish the fire till Tuesday evening, the fire service authorities said.

Fire service officials estimate that it may take two to three days to douse the blaze.

They said the fire was brought under control on Monday midnight. But from Tuesday morning, the fire inside the sugar mill started burning again.

Deputy Director of Chattogram Fire Service Abdur Razzak said the fire was burning inside the warehouse at a temperature of 1,200 to 1,500 degrees Celsius. Fire service personnel are not able to enter the factory because the temperature is high.

The fire broke out in the warehouse of this sugar mill around 4pm on Monday. On information, two units of fire service went to the spot and later five more units joined them to control the fire. However, seven more units were added as the fire was not under control.

Meanwhile, members of the army, navy and air force worked with 14 units of fire service to extinguish the fire. Seven firefighting units are currently operating there.

Meanwhile, a seven-member committee headed by the additional district magistrate was formed on Monday night to investigate the incident. Additional Divisional Commissioner (General) and Acting Divisional Commissioner Anwar Pasha formed the committee.