A major fire that erupted at the Ibn Sina Pharmaceuticals Limitedmanufacturing plant in Gazipur’s Kaliakair upazila has been brought under control following a concerted two-hour operation by emergency services. The incident took place on Saturday afternoon, causing widespread alarm among workers and local residents in the industrial hub.
The blaze originated around 4:00 pm on the ground floor of a six-storey building within the facility, located in the Safipur area under Kaliakair Police Station. Factory personnel first noticed smoke and flames emanating from a storage room situated within the herbal manufacturing section of the complex. Upon detecting the fire, plant authorities immediately alerted the emergency services at approximately 4:15 pm.
Responding swiftly to the distress call, two fire-fighting units from the Kaliakair Fire Station arrived at the scene to initiate containment measures. However, as the flames threatened to spread across the lower levels of the multi-storey structure, additional support was urgently requested. Four more teams—two from the Konabari Fire Station and two from the Gazipur Chowrasta Fire Station—were dispatched to reinforce the operation.
A total of six fire-fighting units worked simultaneously to combat the inferno, successfully preventing it from engulfing upper floors where sensitive machinery and raw pharmaceutical ingredients were housed. According to Md Talha Bin Zasim, an official from the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Cell, firefighters managed to fully tame the blaze after nearly two hours of strenuous efforts.
The Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industry is one of Bangladesh’s major healthcare manufacturers, producing a wide array of modern allopathic formulations alongside traditional herbal and nutraceutical products. Its extensive production site in Gazipur employs hundreds of staff and maintains strict safety protocol requirements owing to the volatile nature of chemical compounds and bulk packaging materials stored on site. While industrial fires in manufacturing zones often pose severe risks to worker safety and cause substantial financial disruption, quick evacuation procedures prevented injuries or fatalities during this incident.
Officials confirmed that no casualties or injuries have been reported so far. The exact cause of the fire and the total financial extent of the structural and material damage remain under investigation, with fire service authorities expected to release further details following a full damage assessment.
