GORAKHPUR, Nov. 22 -- A massive fire that broke out at a bran oil factory here in the wee hours of Friday was raging even after several hours of intense firefighting, district officials said. While about 50 workers were said to be inside the Rungta Industries' bran-oil processing plant in Sector 13 of Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority (GIDA) when the fire broke out around 4 am, all were said to have been evacuated safely, and no major injuries were reported. Even after 16 hours of efforts, the blaze could not be brought under control, and risks of an explosion in a hexane tank of 50,000-litre capacity had increased by the evening, the officials said, adding that people living in the nearby areas were evacuated. More than 200 fire tenders from Gorakhpur and adjoining districts were deployed after local resources proved insufficient to handle the scale of the incident, they said, adding 350 industrial units had ceased their operations for the day. Ambulances, sandbags, and a team from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been stationed at the site to handle any emergency. The officials reported that the plant's internal fire suppression system failed, allowing the flames to spread rapidly to chemical pipelines and storage tanks. Chief fire officer Santosh Kumar said nearly 350 industrial units stopped their operations for a day, and 200 fire tenders had been pressed into service. The exact reason for the fire was under investigation, and putting out the fire in a pipeline of the factory, which is spread over 3 acres, was posing a challenge, he added. Meanwhile, a special control room has been established at the site to coordinate firefighting operations. Senior officials ADG Ashok Mutha Jain, commissioner Anil Dhingra, DIG S. Channapa, district magistrate Deepak Meena and SP City Abhinav Tyagi remained on the ground throughout the day. The primary focus of the operation has been to cool the main storage tank, as its pipelines were said to be heating up dangerously....