KARACHI: A man lost his life and three others were injured in a superstore blaze in Karachi which could not be put out even after seven hours of effort, said an official on Wednesday who blamed the fragile firefighting system in the Pakistani megacity of 15 million people for the tragic incident.
The fire erupted in the basement of Chase-Up Superstore on Kashmir Road in the early hours of the day. Some fifteen fire tenders and teams of different rescue services arrived in the area to put out the flames, but they soon engulfed the first floor of the building.
“One person has died and three others have been shifted to a hospital for treatment,” Asma Batool, assistant commissioner Firozabad, told Arab News while adding that families living in residential apartments in the building had been evacuated.
“The fire is still spreading,” she continued.
Firefighters try to put out flames that engulfed a building in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 1, 2022. (AN Photo/S.A.Babar)
Speaking to the media, chief fire officer Mubeen Ahmed confirmed that the blaze had spread to the first floor of the superstore and firefighters were facing problems due to thick smoke which was also making it difficult for rescue teams to perform their duties.
“It may take 24 more hours to put out the fire,” he said, adding the severity of the blaze suggested it was a third-degree fire.
Onlookers gather outside a building on fire in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 1, 2022. (AN Photo/S.A.Babar)
Azhar Hussain, who lives in one of the residential apartments of the fifteen-story building, said he immediately evacuated his family after the fire erupted.
“Almost all residential apartments have been evacuated by people as the fire continues to spread,” he told Arab News.
Onlookers and rescue personnel gather outside a building on fire in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 1, 2022. (AN Photo/S.A.Babar)
Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi is known for poor fire safety protocols and has witnessed several fire incidents in industrial, commercial and residential neighborhoods.
In one of the worst fire accidents in the country’s history, flames ravaged a textile factory complex in Karachi in 2012, killing 289 workers who remained trapped behind locked doors.
More than 600 others were injured in the same incident.
Last week, a fire broke out in a foam manufacturing factory in the city and firefighters were only able to extinguish it after making hectic efforts for several hours.
In November 2020, a fire broke out at Queen Victoria Market just three days after another blaze gutted over 600 shops in a nearby commercial center which caused billions of rupees of losses.
Karachi is almost of the size of New York, though there is a huge difference in the size and capacity of their firefighting departments.
Karachi has about 20 fire stations and 1,200 firemen whereas New York has 12,000 highly trained and well-equipped firefighters deployed at about 750 different locations.
In December 2020, a Chinese company provided a batch of 52 state-of-the-art fire trucks to the city two years after the Sindh administration gave three fire trucks and a snorkel to the fire department.
Before that, the government had added 50 fire trucks to an existing fleet of 17 in 1995.
Out of these 67 trucks, only 14 were properly functioning until recently.
