Tragic: Three dead in plaza fire

LAHORE:

Three people died in a tragic fire incident at Bakar Mandi on Bund Road on Wednesday. Inventory worth millions of rupees also burned down in the fire.

Rescue-1122 Spokesperson Jam Sajjad told The Express Tribune that they had received a call about the fire at around 11:18am. An electric short circuit had sparked the fire in a four-storey plaza built on two marlas.

The fire erupted in a shop, Mian and Sons, and spread rapidly to three floors. Two of the shops in the plaza kept and sold paints, chemicals and hardware equipment. The shops went up in flames in no time. There was a chemicals store on the ground floor and warehouse for paints and hardware on the third floor. “When the time the fire reached the third floor, it became out of our control,” Sajjad said.

At least 11 fire fighting vehicles were on the job trying to douse the flames and foam coolants were used as well, he said. But the chemicals in the building had turned it into a conflagration, Sajjad said.

The owners of the shops at the plaza were not injured in the fire. But Azhar, 30, Waqar, 23, and Paaras, 17, workers at the shops, perished in the fire. Azhar was found partially burnt from a room on the second floor. Waqar and Paaras were found dead from a room on the roof. The bodies were taken to a morgue for autopsy and were later handed over to their families.

Civil Defence authorities prepared a report on the incident and have sent it to city district government. The report states that fire had erupted due to a short circuit in a UPS in one of the shop. The report said Rescue-1122 officials had been unable to enter the building because the flammable chemicals in the plaza had turned the fire into an inferno. The report states that the building was 40-years old and its map had not been approved by the authorities. The report advises the government to raze the burnt building as it is no longer safe.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2014.