Abbot Road: Six perish in plaza fire
Four in critical condition; inferno caused by short circuit.
Most of the shops in the plaza were for vehicle spare parts. A lot of scrap material was also kept in the building. PHOTO : SHAFIQ MALIK/EXPRESS
LAHORE:
Six people including a three-year-old boy and his mother died and ten were injured in a fire in the six-storey Aiwan-i-Mashriq plaza on Abbot Road on Saturday night.
At least four people are in critical condition and the death toll could rise, said Rescue 1122 Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer.
The fire was caused by a short circuit and the building was not equipped with a fire alarm or a fire extinguishing system. Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation.
Many of the victims were trapped in the building as by the time they woke up, the plaza was engulfed in flames and smoke. The building, which included shops as well as a guesthouse, only had one accessible exit, and all the other doors were locked, said rescue officials.
The fire broke out on the third floor, preventing the residents from escaping by going down the stairs. A rescuer said that they had tried to access the third floor of the building to rescue the residents, but were prevented from doing so by the inferno. “The fire spread very rapidly,” he said.
Five of the dead were identified as Wapda Deputy Director Adnan Meman, 33, from Karachi; Wapda Deputy Director Abdul Ghafar Janjua, 35, from Jhelum; Ameen Zaidi, the guesthouse manager, from Lahore; Yasmeen, 25, and her son Abdul Rehman, 3, from Okara. A sixth body, that of a man, is yet to be identified.
Yasmeen’s husband Tariq Javed, who worked at Aitchison College, also received serious burn injuries and is one of the injured said to be in critical condition at Mayo Hospital
The fire broke out at the third floor of the plaza, located in Qila Gujjar Singh police jurisdiction, to a short circuit at around 11:30 pm. The entire plaza was quickly engulfed in flames and the blaze spread to two adjoining buildings. Around 19 fire fighting vehicles of Rescue 1122 reached the scene and began operations. A large police cordon was put in place, blocking public access to the plaza.
Thick black smoke streamed into the sky from the flaming buildings. “I’ve never seen smoke like it,” said a local who witnessed the fire.
Several people who own shops in the building were seen rushing to the scene and frantically trying to move out their goods. Most of the shops in the plaza were for vehicle spare parts. A lot of scrap material was also kept in the building.
The Punjab Emergency Services, or Rescue 1122, responded to 2,118 fire emergencies in 2012, most of them caused by short-circuiting, according to Rescue 1122 records.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2013.
Six people including a three-year-old boy and his mother died and ten were injured in a fire in the six-storey Aiwan-i-Mashriq plaza on Abbot Road on Saturday night.
At least four people are in critical condition and the death toll could rise, said Rescue 1122 Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer.
The fire was caused by a short circuit and the building was not equipped with a fire alarm or a fire extinguishing system. Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation.
Many of the victims were trapped in the building as by the time they woke up, the plaza was engulfed in flames and smoke. The building, which included shops as well as a guesthouse, only had one accessible exit, and all the other doors were locked, said rescue officials.
The fire broke out on the third floor, preventing the residents from escaping by going down the stairs. A rescuer said that they had tried to access the third floor of the building to rescue the residents, but were prevented from doing so by the inferno. “The fire spread very rapidly,” he said.
Five of the dead were identified as Wapda Deputy Director Adnan Meman, 33, from Karachi; Wapda Deputy Director Abdul Ghafar Janjua, 35, from Jhelum; Ameen Zaidi, the guesthouse manager, from Lahore; Yasmeen, 25, and her son Abdul Rehman, 3, from Okara. A sixth body, that of a man, is yet to be identified.
Yasmeen’s husband Tariq Javed, who worked at Aitchison College, also received serious burn injuries and is one of the injured said to be in critical condition at Mayo Hospital
The fire broke out at the third floor of the plaza, located in Qila Gujjar Singh police jurisdiction, to a short circuit at around 11:30 pm. The entire plaza was quickly engulfed in flames and the blaze spread to two adjoining buildings. Around 19 fire fighting vehicles of Rescue 1122 reached the scene and began operations. A large police cordon was put in place, blocking public access to the plaza.
Thick black smoke streamed into the sky from the flaming buildings. “I’ve never seen smoke like it,” said a local who witnessed the fire.
Several people who own shops in the building were seen rushing to the scene and frantically trying to move out their goods. Most of the shops in the plaza were for vehicle spare parts. A lot of scrap material was also kept in the building.
The Punjab Emergency Services, or Rescue 1122, responded to 2,118 fire emergencies in 2012, most of them caused by short-circuiting, according to Rescue 1122 records.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2013.