Short circuiting: Traders’ Plaza basement gutted in fire
Electrical appliances worth millions burnt, no casualties reported.
The fire erupted at 11am and fire fighters struggled to put it out for five hours. PHOTO: SHAFIQ MALIK
LAHORE:
Fire engulfed the basement and ground floor of the Traders’ Plaza warehouse in Abid Market here on Wednesday.
The warehouse was used to store electrical appliances. Rescue officials told The Express Tribune that fire started due to a short circuit in the basement and spread to the ground floor, but no one was hurt.
Several shopkeepers, who had shops on the first floor, said at least 250 refrigerators and other appliances worth millions of rupees had been kept in the basement of the five-storey plaza. The fire gutted the entire basement. An estimate of the damage has not been made yet.
The office of Rescue’s fire fighting staff is a stone’s throw away from the plaza. The fire erupted at 11am and fire fighters struggled to put it out for five hours. The fire spread from the basement to the ground floor. However the fire fighters managed to stop it from spreading to other buildings.
Rescue officials said a furniture market and Goga Neelam Ghar, where a lot of wooden furniture was kept, were situated near the plaza. It was very important to prevent the fire from spreading to these areas, they said.
Rescue officials said that the fire could not be put down immediately because there was a single entry and exit to the basement.
As the fire spread, other shopkeepers in the market too vacated their shops and removed goods from their shops. Only a week ago, on May 9, a fire erupted in LDA Plaza and killed 24 people.
Arshad Sabir, a shopkeeper in Traders’ Plaza, said, “We evacuated the building immediately because of what happened in LDA Plaza and Johar Town, where fire gutted two furniture markets in no time.”
“The first thing we did was to evacuate the building. Next we tried to save the inventory,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2013.
Fire engulfed the basement and ground floor of the Traders’ Plaza warehouse in Abid Market here on Wednesday.
The warehouse was used to store electrical appliances. Rescue officials told The Express Tribune that fire started due to a short circuit in the basement and spread to the ground floor, but no one was hurt.
Several shopkeepers, who had shops on the first floor, said at least 250 refrigerators and other appliances worth millions of rupees had been kept in the basement of the five-storey plaza. The fire gutted the entire basement. An estimate of the damage has not been made yet.
The office of Rescue’s fire fighting staff is a stone’s throw away from the plaza. The fire erupted at 11am and fire fighters struggled to put it out for five hours. The fire spread from the basement to the ground floor. However the fire fighters managed to stop it from spreading to other buildings.
Rescue officials said a furniture market and Goga Neelam Ghar, where a lot of wooden furniture was kept, were situated near the plaza. It was very important to prevent the fire from spreading to these areas, they said.
Rescue officials said that the fire could not be put down immediately because there was a single entry and exit to the basement.
As the fire spread, other shopkeepers in the market too vacated their shops and removed goods from their shops. Only a week ago, on May 9, a fire erupted in LDA Plaza and killed 24 people.
Arshad Sabir, a shopkeeper in Traders’ Plaza, said, “We evacuated the building immediately because of what happened in LDA Plaza and Johar Town, where fire gutted two furniture markets in no time.”
“The first thing we did was to evacuate the building. Next we tried to save the inventory,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2013.