Trial by fire: Fear, anguish, anger and, for some, relief

Relatives face torment of waiting for news on streets below tower inferno.

LAHORE: Relatives of LDA employees trapped in the burning tower watched in horror as people plummeted hundreds of feet to their death to escape the flames here on Thursday.

At least eight people were confirmed to have died, and several remained missing, as fire fighters continued to try and put out the blaze late into the night. The fire gutted at least five floors of the LDA Plaza.

Friends and family members thronged the scene, praying to God, alternately pleading or remonstrating with rescue workers and government officials.

The crowd gasped and then shouted “Allah-o-Akbar” after watching Ghulam Muhammad, who had sat on the window sill for over five hours, agonisingly out-of-reach of ladders and helicopters, fall and die on Kashmir Road at around 5.30pm.

Plaza fire

(1)  Fire fighters arrive at the scene (2)  A man is pulled up to the roof from the ninth floor

(3)  A fire fighter sprays foam at the blaze. PHOTO: SHAFIQ MALIK, ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS

Izhar, whose brother worked in the finance department at the seventh floor, screamed in pain upon seeing his brother’s charred body fall from a seventh floor window.

Ameer Muawiya, 35, was frantic about his missing brother, Hamza, who worked on the ninth floor. “He called me around 12 and said the fire was getting worse. He had found a staircase, but I haven’t heard from him since. His phone was on for about three hours after that but it’s not responding now,” he said.

Ali Ahmad searched for his brother-in-law, who worked in accounts on the ninth floor. “What will I tell my sister, who has a heart condition?” he said.

(4)  A helicopter ferries a man to safety (5)  People climb up a helicopter from the roof

(6)  Rescuers try to reach people trapped on the ninth floor

PHOTO: SHAFIQ MALIK, ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS

Taimur was looking for his father. “I met one of his colleagues who saw him in the building, running towards the staircase, but I can’t find him and the rescuers and not telling me if he has been evacuated,” he sobbed.

There was a huge round of applause on Edgerton Road when an army helicopter lifted 11 people from the roof of the building. Tariq Butt, a clerk at the cheque department, was one of those evacuated. “God wanted me to live, that’s why I didn’t fall unconscious in that thick smoke,” he said. “But I won’t be able to work in this building again. Several colleagues and friends couldn’t get out.”

“They are not doing anything for the ones stuck in the building. They can’t even rescue the ones who are out on the window ledges,” fumed Ghulam Nabi, who was looking for his brother, an LDA clerk.

“People are fighting with us because our ladders can’t reach the ones trapped on the ledges,” said Rescue 1122 Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer. “But there is nothing that we can do. The ladders only reach the seventh floor, not the ninth.”

(7)  A relative of a victim grieves on the street (8)  Workers at the Shaheen Complex next door throng the fire exits to watch. PHOTO: SHAFIQ MALIK, ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS

“The rescuers are trying their best to put out the fire and save as many people as possible,” said DCO Rizwan Mehboob. People should cooperate instead of fighting and grabbing us by the collars.”

Employees who left the building said that that they had been surprised by the intensity of the blaze.

“Small fires are routine here. No one expected it to spread so fast,” said Waseem Shah. “That’s why some people got stuck.”

Amir Sohail, who works at FM 103’s office at the second floor, said that thick black smoke poured through the ducts into the bottom floors. “Thank God I managed to find my way out,” he said.

Several pigeons that nested on the window ledges near air conditioner exhaust units were roasted in the blaze. “I used to feed the birds at the roof every day,” said Shafique Ali, an elderly office worker. “I feel bad for these poor souls as well.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2013.