KARACHI: Officials were assessing damages after two fires gutted a garments factory and damaged four other manufacturing plants in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi, they said on Friday.
In the first incident, a blaze broke out at the MashaAllah Factory, which processes imported second-hand clothing, and led to the total collapse of the building, according to Hasaan Khan, a spokesperson of Sindh Rescue 1122 service.
At least seven people were injured who were shifted to hospital, while the blaze later engulfed three nearby plants located within the Landhi Export Processing Zone.
“During the cooling-off period, another factory, named Home Furnishings, caught fire at around 11:30pm on Thursday,” Khan told Arab News.
“Our teams were present close to the site and immediately doused the blaze.”
The official said they were estimating losses and ascertaining the causes of the fires.
Factory fires are common in Karachi, a city of over 20 million, where industrial zones often suffer from poor safety standards, lack of fire exits, and inadequate enforcement of regulations.
In Nov. last year, a blaze at a shopping mall killed around a dozen people and injured several others. In April 2023, four firefighters died and nearly a dozen others were injured after a blaze erupted at a garment factory, while 10 people were killed in a massive fire at a chemical factory in the city in August 2021.
In the deadliest such incident, 260 people were killed in 2012 after being trapped inside a garment factory when a fire broke out.
Despite frequent incidents, industrial safety remains a persistent concern in the city, putting thousands of laborers and residents at ongoing risk.
