Lucky escape: No casualties as fire breaks out at barracks on Shahrae Faisal

The facility where the fire broke out was used to store furniture.

KARACHI: A fire broke out early Sunday morning at the Corps Commander Headquarters on Shahrae Faisal, creating panic that it had been attacked in a similar fashion to PNS Mehran. However, as it turned out, the fire broke out in an unused barrack being used to store furniture. No casualties were reported.

It took over 18 fire tenders and two snorkels of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, plus several others from the Defence Housing Authority as well as the navy to bring the fire under control in two hours. An emergency was declared at the nearby Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. Meanwhile, army commandos deployed outside the complex cordoned off the area.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a spokesperson of the military’s public relations wing, ISPR, said that the fire most likely broke out due to a spark in the barrack’s electricity wiring, but added that an army engineer would inspect the site to determine the exact cause of the fire.

The fire reportedly started from the building’s roof, and rapidly spread downwards, the ISPR spokesperson said. The duty officer followed the standard operating procedures and immediately alerted other officials and the fire department.

The city’s chief fire officer, Ehtishamuddin Siddiqui, said that the fire quickly spread because of the wooden structure of the building, and added that it would have caused a lot of damage if it had not been brought under control in a timely manner. Siddiqui concurred with the ISPR spokesperson over the probable cause of the fire, and said that initial investigations suggested that it might have been a result of a short circuit.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2013.