Goods gutted in separate fire incidents in Karachi

Fire tender runs out of water 20 min after arrival

KARACHI:

A large cache of goods were gutted in separate fire incidents in the city on Thursday night.

Flames erupted in a thread and lace factory in New Karachi’s Sector J11 at around 2.30am and were extinguished after a three-hour-long struggle.

Security guards, who resided on the roof of the factory building, were safely evacuated via ladders with the help of K-Electric teams and area locals and no casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, a team of fire officials dispatched from the Sohrab Goth Fire Station reached the site with one fire tender, which ran out of water within 20 minutes. By the time three other fire tenders reached the site, flames had engulfed the entire building.

According to a spokesperson of the fire department, it took four fire tenders, one water tanker and three hours to extinguish the blaze.

A fire officer of the Sohrab Goth Fire Station said that the New Karachi Fire Station was closed due to technical reasons and hence fire tenders were dispatched from the Sohrab Goth Fire Station.

Although the teams couldn’t arrive immediately given the lack of resources, they are fearless in their efforts to rescue people and douse flames in any incident, he said.

According to people present at the time of the incident, a machine had caught fire while 15 labourers were working in the factory.

The workers managed to exit the building in time but they couldn’t evacuate the families of security guards whose residence was on the rooftop of the building, they told.

Goods estimated at over 2.5million were reduced to ashes in the incident.

Later, at around 4am, a fire broke out in a residential apartment in PIB Colony near Old Sabzi Mandi.

The blaze was extinguished by fire officials using one fire tender. According to witnesses of the incident, the fire department teams had arrived immediately.

The family inside the burning apartment had already been safely evacuated by area locals, they said.