Saturday, October 4, 2008

Fire in El Mahalla Textile Company

An electric short circuit is said to be the source of the fire that burnt at least one factory within Egypt's largest textile company, on Saturday morning - October 4, 2008.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that three textile factories within the company were burnt down - specifically Factories # Six, Seven, and Sixteen. The administrative president of the Mahalla Textile Company announced that it was a limited fire which broke out in one factory, and that the losses amount to around only 50 thousand Egyptian pounds. Fortunately no casualties or fatalities were reported.

This fire in the Nile Delta City of El Mahalla is the latest in a series of fires which have erupted in Egypt over the past few weeks. On August 19 a major fire gutted the upper house of the Egyptian parliament - the Shoura (Consultative) Council; while on September 27 another fire burnt down a large part of the classic National Theater in downtown Cairo. These fires clearly point to negligence on the part of the Egyptian State which is responsible for administrating all these sites. The fires in the Shoura Council and the National Theater have resulted in millions of pounds worth of losses, and more for reparations.

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