House fires snuff out two lives

Three-year-old girl among the victims; 9 injured

LAHORE:

Two people were killed and nine others were injured in two separate fires reported across the provincial metropolis. One of the deceased victims was a three-year-old girl.

The first incident was reported in a house in Badami Bagh on Friday. Reportedly, the residents had lit a fire to stave off the cold, which rapidly spread and engulfed the house. As a result, the inhabitants were trapped inside and failed to extinguish the blaze.

Passersby called rescue teams and firefighters promptly reached the scene and extinguished the fire. They also evacuated the casualties and shifted them to Lahore Mayo Hospital and Shahdara Hospital for treatment. An unidentified three-year-old girl succumbed to her injuries. The other causalties have been identified as 70-year-old Muhammad Javed and 12-year-old Ghulam Dastgir.

The other incident was reported in a house in Hanif Park Jia Musa Shahdra. One fatality was reported, while two were injured in the incident. The third incident was reported in Shera Kot Ghazi chowk, where five people were injured when a cylinder exploded with a huge blast.

Furthermore, three more fires were reported in the provincial capital. The cases were reported in houses situated in Gulberg and Canal Road and the third case was reported in Tasvero Wala Chowk Khayaban e Quaid Mansura. Fortunately, no casualties were reported in these incidents.

Deaths and injuries caused by fires have increased amidst the chilling cold of Punjab’s winter, reportedly due to unawareness and negligence. In the winter season, people use different means to produce heat and stave off the cold.

Read: Infant dies in house fire

However, unfortunately they would ignore standard protocols and negligence would result in the loss of life.

Earlier this week, four minor siblings were killed when a sub-standard gas cylinder exploded in a room on fifth floor of a building in Ichra. The children’s father, Abbas, was a manual laborer and away on work when the incident took place. Meanwhile, the children’s mother had just exited the building when the cylinder exploded.

The victims were inside a room, a portion of which was repurposed into a kitchen using a fiber sheet. All of a sudden, gas started leaking from the cylinder and it spread into the room and ignited. The fire engulfed the fiber sheet and other flammable items in the room. Eyewitness accounts stated that within a few minutes, the fire engulfed the whole room. The victims were trapped inside and succumbed to severe burn injuries.

Rescue 1122 reported that in 2023, at least 20,000 fires were reported across the province.

In July of last year, 10 members of a family died of suffocation after a fire erupted in a three-storey building in Taxali Gate.

Reportedly, the fire broke out at around 2am, the specific reasons of which are not known. The victims were asleep at that time. Three families were living in three rooms stacked one on top of the other. A neighbour said that he was asleep at his home when he heard people screaming for help.

He ran and reached outside their home. He saw flames erupting from their fridge and other household items. Other people in the area also reached the spot and tried to break the door using a hammer and other items but failed in their attempts. They alerted Rescue 1122.

As the fire broke out, the victims struggled for their life, climbing up to the upper portion of their home, but they suffocated to death.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2024.