KARACHI: A fire broke out at the Queen Victoria Market in Karachi on Wednesday only three days after another blaze gutted over 600 shops in a nearby commercial center which caused billions of rupees of losses, officials and traders said.
Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi is known for poor fire safety protocols and witnesses several such incidents in industrial, commercial and residential neighborhoods.
The country’s most densely populated city is home to thousands of industrial units and some of the most recognizable skyscrapers in the country.
However, it has only 22 fire stations, 14 functional fire tenders, two snorkels and a little more than a thousand firefighters.
“The firefighters of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation [KMC] are striving to extinguish the flames which we have managed to contain to the top floor of the building,” Tariq Hasan, assistant commissioner overseeing the firefighting operation, told Arab News.
He informed no casualties had been reported, adding that the floor hit by fire housed several garment shops and warehouses.
Hassan also praised the response time of the fire department, though shopkeepers said the firefighters took substantial time to reach the market.
“It took them 30 minutes to send the first two fire tenders which did not have water,” Nooruddin Budhani, who runs a shop in the area, told Arab News. “A few minutes later, a snorkel and more fire tenders arrived.”
The city administrator, Murtaza Wahab, tweeted the KMC fire tenders had reached the market earlier in the day.
“Another case of fire has been reported near Zainab Market, Karachi,” he wrote. “The fire brigade team of KMC is present at the site to control the situation. Will keep everyone posted.”
A statement issued by his office later said 12 fire tenders and two snorkels were used to put out the fire.
“We will conduct an inquiry to identify the causes that led to the blaze,” the statement added.
A few hundred meters away from the Queen Victoria Market, a group of traders had set up a protest camp to demand compensation and early opening of the Cooperative Market which was almost destroyed by fire on Sunday.
“We were just recovering from the impact of COVID-19 when we lost everything,” Imran Khawaja, a union leader at the market, said.
“The fire resulted in the loss of about Rs5 billion,” he continued. “Over 600 shops were totally destroyed along with everything in them. We are only left with ashes.”
Khawaja said the fire tenders reached the scene on Sunday nearly an hour after the fire broke out.
However, the city administrator continued to praise the performance of the fire department.
“We are doing our best and the response of the KMC [fire department] has been quite good,” Wahab told Arab News.
