A large fire occurred at a garment factory in Ludhiana’s Laxmi Nagar on the afternoon of 20th June. The three-story industrial building, which was destroyed by the fire, housed a sizable inventory of clothing. A spectacular escape was made by over 20 manufacturing workers, including women. To save their lives, some of the workers even leaped from the manufacturing terrace onto the rooftop of neighbouring structures.
Due of the factory’s proximity to a residential neighbourhood, locals were frightened as well. Additionally, cracks appeared in a few neighbouring structures.
The incident occurred at around 2.45 pm when factory work was going in full swing. The unit’s first floor suddenly began to emit smoke, and the top two floors quickly caught fire. The fire entirely consumed the top three levels, with the exception of some minor damage on the ground floor.
Around 20 employees were at work at the plant when the fire started. Workers in the levels above the ground floor could not access the rooftop of the adjacent building behind the factory from any floor other than the bottom floor, thus they had to leap from the terrace of the third floor. Workers were unable to put out the flames at the beginning of the incident because the factory lacked fire safety measures.
At 3 o’clock, the fire department was contacted, and firefighters were on the scene shortly after. In order to spray water inside the unit, firefighters had to drill a hole in the factory’s side wall.
Sub fire officer Aatish Rai said, “The fire was brought under control at 6.30 pm with the help of six fire tenders which made 10 rounds.” Regarding the reason behind the fire, he said it is “yet to be ascertained”.
