Hours-long blaze leaves cardboard warehouse in disrepair

Factory management attributed loss to delays in the firefighting operation

KARACHI:

An intense blaze, which erupted on Friday night and continued to burn until the wee hours of Saturday, has left the warehouse of a cardboard factory on the Super Highway in Gadap City in a dilapidated state and gutted cardboard stock and other valuables worth thousands of rupees.

The factory management has attributed the loss to delays in the firefighting operation, maintaining that fire tenders reached the factory late and even then, firefighting staff struggled with operating the new vehicles recently handed over to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) by the federal government.

Firefighting operation

Initially, the fire department dispatched just one fire tender to the site. Later, another had to be sent when the first one proved insufficient to douse the blaze.

According to a fire department spokesperson, the first fire tender had reached the factory from Gadap City fire station around 9.15 pm on Friday, soon after the fire was reported.

"But we soon had to send another, given the intensity of the blaze," he said.

Firefighters were able to douse the roaring flames around 2 am after an hours-long struggle and began the cooling process, he added.

However, the fire reignited and rapidly intensified just an hour into the cooling process, around 3 pm.

Consequently, three more fire tenders and a snorkel were sent to the site to contain the blaze.

Besides, a fire tender of Bahria Town also reached the spot to assist with dousing the fire.

The Rangers too reached the spot after they were informed of the incident and surrounded the warehouse. Rangers personnel assisted firefighters in putting out the blaze and participated in the rescue operation.

The fire was extinguished around 5.30 am and the cooling process was carried out till 9am on Saturday.

'Inefficient, faulty and untrained'

Later, a representative of the factory management, who asked not to be named, told The Express Tribune in the presence of a fire department official of Gadap City fire station that fire tenders had not arrived in time.

He claimed technical faults in two fire tenders further delayed the operation.

The representative added that the factory management then called water tankers to assist with the operation.

"When the operation was stalled due to the technical faults, we even attempted to connect pipes to the tankers and throw water at the warehouse, but it did not work and the operation was resumed only after more fire tenders arrived," he said.

According to him, KMC firefighters were not trained to operate new fire tenders and as a result the vehicles remained parked at a side while firefighters employed old fire tenders to extinguish the blaze.

"When old vehicles ran out of water, they were replenished with water from new fire tenders. They (the fire department) are using the new fire tenders as water tankers," he decried.

The fire department official present at the spot did not respond to any of these statements.

While no casualties were reported in the incident, the blaze could have been a deadly one had it erupted during work hours as the warehouse did not have any vents and windows.

According to fire department officials, the lack of vents and windows also caused difficulties in extinguishing the fire.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2021.