90 stalls gutted at Sunday bazaar
Four-member committee formed to determine cause of fire
Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the Sector H-9 Sunday Bazaar, while vendors look at the goods they could salvage. PHOTO: ZAFAR ASLAM/EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD:
At least 90 shops and stalls were gutted when a massive blaze broke out in the clothing and hosiery section of the Sector H-9 weekly bazaar on Wednesday afternoon.
There were no reports of any casualties, however, since the bazaar is not held on Wednesday.
Dense fumes of black smoke billowed above the bazaar as a fire erupted in E and F sections of the bazaar, where used clothes, shoes and drapes are sold on economical rates. The fire quickly spread to surrounding shops and stalls of the weekly market, which is located near Peshawar Mor.
There were rumours that fire was caused by an exploding generator and it spread owing to petrol in the generator. However, officials said that the true cause of the fire can only be determined once they complete a forensic analysis of the fire.
Capital Development Authority (CDA) sources said that the firefighting directorate received information at around 12:57 pm that a fire had broken out at the market. Fire tenders of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) and CDA rushed to the spot and reached there just five minutes later and started extinguishing the blaze.
CDA spokesperson Malik Saleem Akhtar said that a total of 12 fire tenders, 10 water bowsers and 150 firefighters took part in the operation and managed to overcome the blaze in 45 minutes.
A four-member enquiry committee has been constituted by civic authorities to ascertain the causes of the fire. The committee will be headed by the CDA security director and include Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) director, Emergency and Disaster Management Cell deputy director and Fire Operations assistant director as other members of the committee.
The enquiry team will submit its findings regarding the causes of fire outbreak to IMC Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz and CDA Chairman Ishrat Ali.
According to the rules and regulations of allotment of stalls, stallholders can operate from sunrise to sunset. They are not allowed to use electricity inside their stalls nor can they build a gate or place locks on their stalls.
The regulations also prohibit stallholders from establishing permanent structures and are bound to shift their merchandises from the bazaar once it closes for the week.
Another provision of rules says that no one can be allotted a place for selling goods on a permanent basis.
However, the regulations of weekly bazaars are blatantly violated with the alleged connivance of CDA officials and stallholders have set up permanent structures for their shops where they can lock their goods insides in sheer violation of CDA weekly bazaar regulations.
The Sector H-9 weekly bazaar was set up in in 1980 and in 2006, the CDA rebuilt the market over 25 acres of land with proper planning at a cost of Rs160 million with a capacity for 2,760 stalls. The bazaar is held thrice a week including Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
The bazaar is flanked by Kashmir Highway on one side and can be accessed from a double road and the metro station on its eastern end.
Wednesday’s fire was reminiscent of a similar incident in the same section of bazaar less than a year ago when around 500 shops were burnt to ash.
On August 23, 2017, a fire had broken out in sections E and F of the bazaar after a solar-powered battery exploded in a hosiery stall Coincidentally, that incident also took place on a Wednesday when there was no one around.
A subsequent inquiry found that the fire could have been put out soon after it broke out only if the shopkeepers followed the prescribed safety measures and had fire extinguishers installed.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 19th, 2018.
At least 90 shops and stalls were gutted when a massive blaze broke out in the clothing and hosiery section of the Sector H-9 weekly bazaar on Wednesday afternoon.
There were no reports of any casualties, however, since the bazaar is not held on Wednesday.
Dense fumes of black smoke billowed above the bazaar as a fire erupted in E and F sections of the bazaar, where used clothes, shoes and drapes are sold on economical rates. The fire quickly spread to surrounding shops and stalls of the weekly market, which is located near Peshawar Mor.
There were rumours that fire was caused by an exploding generator and it spread owing to petrol in the generator. However, officials said that the true cause of the fire can only be determined once they complete a forensic analysis of the fire.
Capital Development Authority (CDA) sources said that the firefighting directorate received information at around 12:57 pm that a fire had broken out at the market. Fire tenders of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) and CDA rushed to the spot and reached there just five minutes later and started extinguishing the blaze.
CDA spokesperson Malik Saleem Akhtar said that a total of 12 fire tenders, 10 water bowsers and 150 firefighters took part in the operation and managed to overcome the blaze in 45 minutes.
A four-member enquiry committee has been constituted by civic authorities to ascertain the causes of the fire. The committee will be headed by the CDA security director and include Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) director, Emergency and Disaster Management Cell deputy director and Fire Operations assistant director as other members of the committee.
The enquiry team will submit its findings regarding the causes of fire outbreak to IMC Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz and CDA Chairman Ishrat Ali.
According to the rules and regulations of allotment of stalls, stallholders can operate from sunrise to sunset. They are not allowed to use electricity inside their stalls nor can they build a gate or place locks on their stalls.
The regulations also prohibit stallholders from establishing permanent structures and are bound to shift their merchandises from the bazaar once it closes for the week.
Another provision of rules says that no one can be allotted a place for selling goods on a permanent basis.
However, the regulations of weekly bazaars are blatantly violated with the alleged connivance of CDA officials and stallholders have set up permanent structures for their shops where they can lock their goods insides in sheer violation of CDA weekly bazaar regulations.
The Sector H-9 weekly bazaar was set up in in 1980 and in 2006, the CDA rebuilt the market over 25 acres of land with proper planning at a cost of Rs160 million with a capacity for 2,760 stalls. The bazaar is held thrice a week including Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
The bazaar is flanked by Kashmir Highway on one side and can be accessed from a double road and the metro station on its eastern end.
Wednesday’s fire was reminiscent of a similar incident in the same section of bazaar less than a year ago when around 500 shops were burnt to ash.
On August 23, 2017, a fire had broken out in sections E and F of the bazaar after a solar-powered battery exploded in a hosiery stall Coincidentally, that incident also took place on a Wednesday when there was no one around.
A subsequent inquiry found that the fire could have been put out soon after it broke out only if the shopkeepers followed the prescribed safety measures and had fire extinguishers installed.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 19th, 2018.