TAIZ: The most significant factory of the Hayel Saeed Anam Group of Companies, the Tobacco Plant, had burnt last Friday morning because of what is thought to be an electrical short circuit. The fire spread rapidly eating away almost everything in the factory, including the machines. Fortunately, nobody was killed. However, several employees were injured because of the fire and the smoke. The Yemen Times Bureau Chief, in Taiz, was in the factory by coincidence, and was the first to rescue the employees who were trapped inside. The devastation is mainly going to disturb the government, which will lose around YR 2 billion, which it used to receive as taxes annually.
The families of the 250 employees, who are now jobless, will also be affected by this accident. This is considered to be devastating for the Yemeni economy. However, the Hayel Saeed group, as Abdulwas’i Hayel states, “is too strong to be affected.” We believe in this as well. Read more on B&E page
——
[archive-e:36-v:1999-y:1999-d:1999-09-06-p:./1999/iss36/front.htm]
