No one was hurt as firefighters put out a fire that spread to two levels of a 13-story commercial building on M.A. Jinnah Road in Karachi on Tuesday.
Rescue 1122 said in a statement that as soon as they were notified of the incident at Rimpa Plaza, their fire and rescue crew, two ambulances, four firetrucks, and a snorkel arrived on the scene.
According to the rescue agency, the fire began on the fourth floor of the 13-story building, and it was difficult to put out “because of improper ventilation” in the structure.
The fire was successfully extinguished after several hours of work.
Rescue 1122 officer Hassaan Khan told Dawn.com, “The fire has been contained and cooling work (putting out any remaining hot spots) is underway.” “There have been no reported casualties.”
According to him, the facility was primarily made up of godowns that had been used to store raw materials for creating tires and spare parts for various pieces of machinery. In addition, the structure contained a clinic, offices, and stores.
“The fire started in a fourth-floor shop and quickly spread, taking over the fourth floor at first and then the fifth floor as well. The sixth and seventh floors sustained some damage, but both floors were totally demolished,” he stated.
Khan went on to say that the fire was likely caused by a short circuit failure.
In a previous statement, the Karachi Traffic Police stated that the fire forced the closure of M.A. Jinnah Road to traffic near Saeed Manzil around 1:28 p.m. Additionally, it stated that traffic was being rerouted to Gul Plaza and Regal Chowk.
After noticing the fire, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah gave the order to put it out right away. Additionally, he asked Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi for a thorough report.
In order to prevent such incidents, CM Shah further directed the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and other relevant departments to conduct building inspections.
Because there are insufficient fire safety precautions in structures, fire occurrences are frequent in the city. Last month, a hotel fire on Sharea Faisal was extinguished.
A multi-story commercial structure along I.I. Chundrigar Road had also caught fire. Following this, a gas cylinder explosion on Sunday night resulted in a massive fire in a Model Colony warehouse.
The Sindh High Court was notified in February of this year by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) that it had carried out a fire safety audit of more than 265 commercial buildings and that none of them had a fire safety certificate or a no-objection certificate (NOC) issued by the fire department.
According to the KMC study, approximately 155 of the 265 buildings lacked smoke and fire detectors, while the status of nine of these buildings was unknown.
In a similar vein, more than 155 buildings’ electrical and wiring systems were deemed to be in inadequate condition. According to the assessment, almost 200 structures lacked or had inadequate firefighting apparatus that was accessible.
In order to verify that safety regulations are being followed, the SHC had instructed provincial officials to make sure that appropriate teams inspected every mall in the city.
The bench voiced displeasure about a number of fire-related occurrences that have recently happened at the city’s shopping and commercial malls and structures.
In a case involving a fire at a shopping center on Rashid Minhas Road last year, the court issued such orders. A suspected short circuit caused a fire to break out inside the R.J. Shopping Mall, killing at least 11 people and injuring five more.
