Restaurant in Boat Basin gutted in massive blaze

KMC and CBC fire brigades say site was not in their jurisdictions

KARACHI: A branch of Pizza Hut on the ground floor of a multi-storey building was gutted and several other floors damaged when a blaze erupted in the building in Boat Basin Sunday morning.

The fire broke out at around 8am on the ground floor of a 14-storey building located near Boat Basin Chowrangi and later engulfed the other floors of the building. Upon receiving the information, fire tenders reached the site and participated in the extinguishing work.

"It was not a criminal act. The fire broke out accidentally, apparently due to a short circuit," said Boat Basin SHO Naseer Tanoli. "And the good news is that no loss of life was reported."

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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman reached the site and accused the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) fire department of reaching the scene 45 minutes late.

Zaman added that the fire brigade department was being mismanaged. He claimed that the fire brigade staff had requested him to raise the issue of eight-month pending fire risk allowance in the Sindh Assembly. Accusing Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar of negligence, Zaman said that the fire department lacked uniforms and its vehicles were not maintained.

 

Passing the buck

A dispute between the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) and KMC also surfaced over the matter of jurisdiction. Both authorities claimed that the site of the fire was under the other's jurisdiction and blamed the other for not acting promptly.



The KMC's fire brigade spokesperson claimed that it was the CBC's responsibility to douse the fire at Pizza Hut because the area was under its jurisdiction. "Despite the fact that the fire site was in the CBC's domain, our fire tenders reached the site before CBC," he said. "Five of our fire tenders and one snorkel participated in dousing the fire."

However, the CBC's fire brigade spokesperson rejected the KMC's claims, stating that the fire was in the latter's jurisdiction. "Blocks 8 and 9 of Clifton are in our jurisdiction, while the fire broke out in Block 5," he claimed. "However, we also participated in the fire extinguishing work."

Meanwhile, the Karachi commissioner also visited the site and asked the authorities concerned to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit a report to him within three days.