"My life is over." Sitting on the pavement in front of the garment factory, Beauty Fashion, its owner Beauty Akhter lamented as she saw firefighters put out the blaze at the six-storey building in Mirpur-11.

Talking to The Daily Star, the 46-year-old said she was a garment worker for 22 years.

"Eight years ago, I opened my own garment factory with three used sewing machines. At times I even employ up to 60 people. Right now, 35 workers work in my factory," said Beauty.

A fire raged through the fifth-floor of a six-storey building on Kalshi Road in Mirpur-11 on Friday night. The commercial building housed a community centre on the ground floor.

Firemen brought the fire under control nearly after two hours.

Her factory was on the topmost floor, where the fire broke out.

Beauty said she is a sub-contractor who takes orders from other garment factories and delivers them.

"I had 40,000 pieces of children's winter clothes [pants and shirts] in the factory. The order was completed last week. It was supposed to be shipped to Saudi Arabia three days ago. Due to the Dhaka airport fire a few days ago, the exporter did not take the delivery," she said.

Shuma Akhter, owner of Shuma Fashion, told this correspondent, "Recently I imported 10 tonnes of fabric from China. After getting the clothes ready, I was supposed to export them to Saudi Arabia. Beauty's factory already finished the first order of 5 tonnes. Just two-three days ago, I sent over the rest of the fabric to her for stitching."

"I have so much debt. My business is gone. I am ruined," she said from the spot.

Meanwhile, Beauty Akhter said she went to check in on her garment factory around 5:00pm today. "As it was the weekend, I just went, had a look, and closed the factory. Later at night, I heard that my factory was on fire."

Crying profusely on the roadside, Beauty said, "I rented this 2500+ sqft space around three and a half months ago."

Both business owners suspected foul play.

"This was not an accident. The gate leading to the staircase from the community centre on the ground floor was left open," said Beauty.