Factory fire near Cairo kills at least 24

A fire at the Al-Helw furniture factory near the Egyptian capital left 24 dead on Wednesday, the health ministry spokesman said.

The fire in El Obour, a city about 35km northeast of Cairo, also left 22 people wounded, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said.

“Another 22 people were injured in the fire, which gutted a timber factory in eastern Cairo’s Al-Obour City,” ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar told Anadolu Agency.

Those killed and injured in the fire were transferred to five different hospitals around Cairo, he said

The spokesman said the death toll is expected to rise after civil defence personnel and firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze.

The blaze, which eyewitnesses said started when a gas cylinder exploded, was eventually put out after 20 fire trucks reported to the scene, according to local media.

Video footage posted on social networks showed thick smoke billowing from the factory as rescuers crowded to help the victims.

Such accidents are relatively common in Egypt, given the dilapidated state of many buildings and failure to adhere to industrial safety norms.

Egyptian state-run media said the factory had not obtained government safety certification. 

In September 2014, six people died and 22 were injured when a textile dyeing factory collapsed in Cairo in an accident blamed on poor construction.