HARIPUR, June 29: The death toll in the recent fire in a cement plant here had risen to nine, independent sources told Dawn here on Tuesday. The factory sources, however, confirmed the death of eight workers while the Hattar police put it at six.

The fire broke out at Saadi Cement plant in Hattar Industrial area, some 12 kilometres from here on Saturday evening. The cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained but the police termed it negligence on the part of factory administration and registered a case against the management under sections of Qisas and Diyat.

A factory worker who escaped unhurt in the inferno told Dawn that pipes carrying raw material (melted stone) from kiln to cyclone drum had got chocked and when some of them tried to tinker with the chocked cyclone drum for clearing the obstruction, the hot raw material which was usually melted at 600fh temperature, gushed out with a bang and spilled over workers present in the premises of pre-heater.

When the burning liquid hit the drums filled with furnace oil, it caught fire with a blast setting the portion of the building on fire, he said. According to workers' sources the 2000 tones old-fashioned cement plant was operated manually and in the past whenever its pipes were chocked the management had used the same modus operandi of clearing obstruction with iron bars, whereas it was a wrong practice and in other units this process is controlled through computer system.

According to DPO Haripur Abdullah Khan who also headed the rescue operation the causes of accident were yet to be known, but the inferno.