Fire fighters struggle to contain the blaze at Jumbo Packaging Printing within Murzah Oil mills compound at Kipawa in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

An inferno broke out inside Murzah Oil Mill’s Jumbo Packaging Print Industries at the Dar es Salaam suburb of Kipawa yesterday, razing a section of it to the ground.

Eyewitnesses said the fire, which destroyed an oil tanker and two warehouses used to store packaging materials, might have been caused by flying sparks from a welding machine.

The factory’s Chief Security Officer Donald Bura told ‘The Guardian’ at the scene of the incident that three workers were on duty inside the warehouse using a welding machine shortly before the inferno broke.

The fire, which started around 3pm spread fast, partly burning an oil tanker filled with sundrop oil that was parked nearby. The employees managed to remove the tanker from the yard before it burned down.

Ukonga Officer Commanding District identified as S. Komba who was leading efforts to tame the fire said it was too early to confirm the cause of the fire, but was certain no life had been lost.

The Company managing director Abdul Zakaria couldn’t immediately state the extent of the damage caused by the fire, but said the loss incurred - counting the burnt warehouse and print materials, was in billions of shillings.

He said each warehouse stored at least 1,000 tonnes of packing rollers of papers estimated to be costing billions of shillings.

At least ten fire fighting vehicles from the Dar es Salaam City Council and Knight Support, among others, rushed to the scene to try to tame the rogue fire. However, efforts to put it off were still futile, until we went to press.