Why did the power go out for 10 mins just before the fire?

Short circuiting fires don’t spread this quickly, claim market union reps.

KARACHI:

There was only one kind of talk at Empress Market on Monday, a day after a fire gutted about 54 shops - why did the power go off for ten minutes from 2:45 am to 2:55 am during which time the blaze erupted.

It was because of the blackout that most people have been quick to say that electrical short-circuiting was not possible. Additionally, Abdul Bari Kakar, the chairman of the  Empress Market traders association, maintains that the fire was deliberate - a conspiracy to punish shopkeepers who had resisted pressure to cough up extortion money and obey orders to shut down for certain protests. “The fire was so intense that the heavy steel girders melted like candle wax,” he said.

Short-circuiting takes place regularly, Kakar explained. But, usually they just give off smoke and the fires are quickly contained. He maintains that something like this would not have gutted such a large number of shops in 10 minutes.

He claims that they had found traces of a chemical from the floor and walls and that testing was underway. He believes that someone snuck in from the small gate beside the meat market as its lock was found broken.

The gates to Empress Market are closed at 7pm and the watchmen sleep inside. Ansar Abbasi of the Dry Fruit Traders Association was informed about the fire by watchman Khair Muhammad, who had said it had spread like jungle fire. “I do not believe an electrical short circuit caused the fire because that could not have burnt 50 shops in just 5 minutes,” he said.

Omar Farooq and Sadaruddin Agha of the market association backed this theory.

Investigation needed

Architect and town planner Arif Hassan felt there were three possibilities. “One, it might be the work of people wanting to disrupt the peace of the city,” he said. “Second, there are people anxious to put the building to some other use. Third, and most importantly, the badly maintained building with a pool of tangled wires might have actually caught fire due to a short circuit.” The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is that timber catches fire quickly, he added.

This was seconded by Professor Noman Ahmed, the chairman of the architecture department at NED University. He put aside speculation on the cause of the fire. The basic material used in the construction of Empress Market includes the highly flammable timber, he pointed out.

For her part, Yasmin Cheema, the former director of the Heritage Support Cell at the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, said that after researching Saddar’s Empress Market years ago for her book ‘The Historical Quarters of Karachi’, she found no use of chemical material that is sometimes used in stone walls.

Heritage Foundation CEO Yasmeen Lari hinted at foul play. “Fire is one good way to say that this place [Empress Market] is gutted now. Instead let’s build something which can earn us millions.”

Like many other architects and city planners, Lari said that faulty electric lines may have caused the fire but “looking at the apathy of the people around, it is hard to believe that this is the only issue”.

Referring to the land mafia, she said that for a long time “some people” have been after the oldest landmark of the city. “The prime purpose is to close it down so that something profitable could be made on it,” she said. “It [Empress Market] is not just a piece of land, there is a history behind it.”

According to Lari, the land where Empress Market stands is where the “mutineers”, during the 1857 War of Independence, were stuffed into cannons and blown to smithereens. “This is what this landmark is all about.

This event of history will always be remembered for attaining independence after so much struggle and loss of human lives.” Sadly, the same struggle continues even today, she added.

Lari is, however, optimistic that the damages are repairable. A day after the fire, the photographs show that one part of the roof is gone but the stone walls are in fairly good condition.

This is not something that cannot be fixed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2011.