Flames and smoke spew out from the seventh floor of the building. PHOTO: SHAFIQ MALIK, ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
Families of the missing victims waited patiently outside the building as fire fighters and rescue workers waited on the building to “cool down” and continued to extinguish the fire.
After continued delays, some exasperated families tried to get into the plaza themselves to bring out the remaining dead. Mourning families were visibly frustrated as people are still reported to be missing and have received little or no information from relevant authorities.
Nearly 25 bodies are expected to be inside the building but rescuers claim the possibility of finding victims alive is very low. At least 22 people have been confirmed dead so far.
Authorities and officials remain missing at large, adding to the frustration of those families waiting in the heat.
Initial reports suggest that the fire may have started due to a short circuit. Twenty six people were rescued from the fire in total.
Records destroyed
The fire has been deemed “mysterious” as it was reported to fire services 40 minutes after it first erupted. The fire had already burnt a lot of the offices on the floors on which it erupted by the time it was reported.
The floors that have been destroyed consisted mainly of offices related to finance and audit operations. Original records of projects such as Tajpur, Bahria Town and other large projects were kept in the offices.
https://vimeo.com/65896487
COMMENTS (19)
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Do not filter this comment. Many of us were not moved by the events of 9-11. Many others were rather happy. Lately, we have had several incidents in which people chose to die by jumping instead of being burnt alive. We should rethink our actions. Run the recordings of LDA building fire and twin tower blaze and you shall only see helpless humans choosing their mode of death. Americans saw 9-11 only once. We see it happening every other day. Lets start thinking beyond that was told by our respectable molvee sahibs.
@aaaaa: Please look for their statement. They issue NO clearances. TI issued clear statements explaining their methodologies. If TI cleared it, why wasn't the record handed over to NAB in time?
In should be noted that in most of the world the construction of high rise buildings requires fire resistant dedicated stair wells with marked fire exit doors on each floor, along with other fire safety construction specific codes to ensure safe fire evacuation. One can take a quick trip to the Gulf countries to see what extent these codes are vigorously enforced to protect their citizens! If such construction codes are not present in Pakistan, (or ignored by way of bribes and corruption), then these needless horrific deaths will be repeated over and over! The major news organizations need to inspect high rise structures to see if such basic fire safety design features such as fire stairs are present, AND PUBLISH THE RESULTS!
This fire incident looks fishy
To hide the misdoings of a few, many lives were put in danger and some were even lost, tragically. Now these same few are asking us to give them another chance. By doing so, they are making fun of our intelligence and trusting nature. Who can blame them, we are bent upon repeating our mistakes while conveniently overlooking theirs.
This reminds of the Mantralaya fire that broke out due to 'electrical failure' in Mumbai. Documents related to the Adarsh Housing scam and sundry irrigation scams were among papers gutted.
This proves that India or Pakistan - the political class is united in its venality.
@Sid: ya..they mean metro bus...who else would do so? just one day before election, the records of metro bus has been destroyed...
The Govt has not announced any compensation till date,the Govt must com forward to the help of those famiies who suffered in the inferno it is the duty of the Govt.Sorry for the victims may Allah give peace to the departed souls.
LDA and Bahria Town are in dispute for the past couple of years. Now the floors with the records go up in flames and Malik Riaz is offering 500,000 as compensation?
we need proper governance and vision and not bus and motor way. Civic institutions and reforms are needed not SCHEMES of yellow cab and laptops!
Great tragedy . May their souls rest in peace .
and it's Saturday?
the incident was very awful, many families got ruined, the record for metro bus project was also there.
This incident was very awful, many families got ruined now. Pathetic :(
@Sid:
you mean the projects already cleared by transparency international as clean?
Malik Riaz is offering 0.5 million to families of the deceased.
This was arson. Too bad those responsible are going to rule us for 5 years.
"Bahria Town and other large projects were kept in the offices." Enough to understand