Inferno: Fire breaks out at curtains shop

The fire at Noor Curtains broke out at 6am on Sunday morning and burned down the entire store.

KARACHI:

A fire that broke out at Noor Curtains in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Sunday morning burned down the entire store but no loss of life was reported.

All the carpets and cloth for curtains worth millions of rupees turned to ashes in the fire that erupted at 6am. The fire fighters have yet to determine what caused the fire. As many as nine fire trucks participated in the rescue efforts. “Due to the presence of carpets, the fire spread through the entire shop,” said the chief fire officer Ehtishamuddin. “It took at least four hours to extinguish the fire,” he said.

A few months ago, Noor Curtains — located close to the Baitul Mukarram Masjid — and its owner’s house also came under attack when some men lobbed cracker bombs when they failed to pay extortion.

Soon after the fire on Sunday, Muttahida Qaumi Movement MNA Muzammil Qureshi visited the site. “The barriers installed by the residents to protect themselves have been removed by the law enforcers for the sake of operations so now it is the responsibility of the government to ensure the protection of people and their properties.”

The owners had installed closed-circuit security cameras but they also burned down. “Only one camera installed outside the shop remained safe in the fire but the DVR system gutted,” said DSP Nasir Lodhi.

According to DSP Lodhi, the extortion threats were made through phone calls but the address and other data of the SIM card used were fake. He promised that the police are looking into a criminal cause behind the incident as well.

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