A fire that tore through the June Textile factory in Sen Sok district’s Tek Thla commune yesterday left one garment worker and two firefighters slightly injured and wreaked millions of dollars in damages, a factory official said.

Meng Try, administrative manager at June Textile, said the factory employs more than 4,000 workers but that only about 2,000 were working at the time of the fire, which erupted at about 4:30pm.

“The fire started in the warehouse on the ground floor, where we keep unprocessed and processed goods and raw materials,” he said.

He said one worker lost consciousness during the fire from shock and two firefighters were briefly overcome by smoke.

Meng Try added that he thought the fire could have been caused by a smoker who discarded a cigarette on materials stored in the warehouse.

The fire continued to burn at press time as fire fighters worked to bring the flames under control and now additional casualties had yet been recorded by authorities.

Chea Vanneat, a unionist at June Textile, said yesterday that workers discovered the fire at about 4:30pm when they discovered smoke pouring out of the ground floor of the building.

“The workers fled the building when they saw smoke in order to find a safe place,” he said.

Earlier this year, workers at June Textile called a strike to urge the removal of two senior officials on accusations of graft.