A fireman trains a water jet at flames raging through the Dum Dum carrom board factory. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

A Dum Dum factory producing carrom boards and other plywood items was destroyed in a fire early on Thursday. There was no injury or casualty.

Owner Manoj Jaiswal refused to comment on the loss but sources said goods worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed in the blaze that raged through M/s Crown Sports Industries for more than two hours.

“The unit, despite dealing with combustible material, did not have the basic fire-fighting equipment. We have lodged a complaint with Dum Dum police station,” said a fire service officer.

It was around 2.30am when residents of the locality spotted flames leaping out of the factory at 29 Dum Dum Road and informed the fire brigade.

“We received the call around 3.10am and sent 20 tenders to the spot. The fire was doused at 4.30am,” said Dipak Sarkar, who supervised the fire-fighting operation. “The entire shopfloor was stacked with plywood sheets and cans containing adhesives and glue, which helped the fire to spread.”

An officer said the entire 3,000-sq-ft factory shed was gutted. “The roof was about to collapse when we reached the spot,” said a fireman.

Residents of the area were scared that the flames would reach their houses. “The area is thickly populated. There would have been a disaster had the flames spread to any one of the houses,” said Animesh Mukherjee, a local resident.