El Gezira — At least 9,000 100-kg (quintal) bales of cotton were lost during an extensive fire that broke out in a cotton gin in El Marangan industrial area in El Gezira on Friday, that took 12 hours to extinguish.

The Director of the Civil Defence Department of El Gezira state, Police Brig Gen Muhammad El Naeem Police, announced in a statement via the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA), that the causes of the fire that broke in Muhammad Yusuf's gin are still under investigation.

El Naeem said that it too seven civil defence officers and 20 soldiers, equipped with five fire engines, four loaders, and five dump trucks, 12 hours to get the blaze under control. They managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the rest of the industrial area, and much of the gin's stock was saved.

The director of the gin, Muhammad Youssef, announced that the losses amounted to at least 9,000 quintals of cotton, while 17,000 quintals were saved. He praised the efforts made by the Civil Defence Department to contain the fire, which he said save the greater industrial area from a real disaster.