Up in flames: Highrise fire chars one storey, damages three

The fire broke out at around 8am and engulfed the entire floor within minutes.

ISLAMABAD: A massive fire in a 14-storey building in Blue Area on Thursday left three floors damaged and one gutted. Fire fighters struggled for more than four hours to extinguish the fire, while a proactive building security guard got himself minor burns preventing the flame from spreading on his own.

The fire broke out at around 8am on the right-most corner of the seventh floor and engulfed it within minutes, said a security guard of the neighbouring Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) building on Jinnah Avenue.

Before the fire brigade could arrive, seven people, mostly security guards, went up to the seventh floor to find and extinguish the source of the fire and got themselves trapped. One of the guards, Asghar Hussain, suffered minor burns on his hands and arms before he was rescued by fire fighters, who used high-rise ladders to enter the seventh floor.

Two of the men rescued, including Hussain, were taken out of the building first and shifted to the hospital. After a brief operation, the rescuers managed to pull the remaining five people out of the building.

The cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed; however, police officials said it is likely to have been caused due to short-circuiting. An inquiry committee has been formed to determine the actual reason of the fire, a police officer said.

More than 50 fire fighters, 35 fire-tenders with two 65-meter-high snorkels and dozens of water tankers were used in the operation. Even then the fire was extinguished around 2pm, the seventh floor of the building was completely destroyed, while 70 per cent of the eighth floor and 50 per cent of the ninth floor were damaged, according to officials.

Fire brigade officials complained that the security barricades erected at the rear of the high-rise building created hurdles in approaching the building from behind.

Some witnesses said that the fire-brigade was at least half an hour late in arriving at the scene. However, these claims were refuted by Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairperson Imtiaz Iniyat Elahi, who said the fire department officials reached the scene within ten minutes. Fire Brigade Deputy Director Hammad Ahmed concurred. “We received the call at about 8:09 am and the vehicles were mobilized and reached the scene within ten minutes.”

Ahmed said that notices had already been issued to the building owners in September this year, directing them to take precautionary measures. It will be investigated whether the administration had taken the measures or not. He said that the alarm system and emergency exits were functional. After thorough assessment of the building, the deputy director said that the structure of the building was intact.

All the three floors damaged in the fire were in possession of Hashoo Group of Companies. The sixth floor was in possession of Caltex, while first five floors and the last two floors of the building were being used as the United Bank Limited’s (UBL) head office.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2011.