KARACHI: A massive fire that broke out on a site used to park government-owned vehicles in the Clifton neighborhood on Monday morning destroyed up to 50 cars, according to police and rescue personnel.
According to the police, the 4,000 square yard land belonged to the Sindh services and general administration department and was being used as Nazarat, commonly known as the central pool for unclaimed and retired automobiles.
Although the police ruled out sabotage, Rescue-1122 felt it was an arson act.
Official Hassaan Khan of Rescue-1122 said Dawn that at approximately 5:37 a.m., a policeman informed their central command and control about a fire in Clifton, Block-1, close to Qurtaba Masjid.
Three firefighters put out the fire at about eight in the morning, according to the official.
He calculated that the fire had damaged about fifty cars. According to him, the various departments of the Sindh government owned over 150 decommissioned automobiles.
Mr. Khan suspected arson due to the scale of the damage and the quick spread of the fire that quickly devoured so many automobiles. But he did say that investigations were still ongoing to determine the precise cause of the incident.
Boat Basin SHO Naseer Tanoli, meanwhile, ruled out any chance of sabotage being the reason for the event and surmised that some drug addicts may have started the fire while ingesting the contraband at the plot.
The plot’s watchman wasn’t there when the tragedy happened.
According to the local SHO, the police had assessed that more than 20 cars had been totaled in damage.
He said that the police were still looking into the matter.
