Panic: Fire in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital godown

KARACHI: Panic gripped the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital as news of a fire breaking out in its outside yard situated behind the emergency ward emerged on Saturday. The emergency ward of the city’s largest public sector hospital was asked to be immediately evacuated. Chief fire officer Ehtishamuddin Siddiqui told The Express Tribune that the fire broke out at a godown where empty cardboards boxes were lying. “We sent three fire tenders from the Nazimabad fire station who doused the fire during an hour’s efforts,” he said. “It was not a dangerous situation as the fire did not erupt in a ward or a room.” A hospital official confirmed that the fire broke out in the godown and the emergency ward was evacuated. “It was not an emergency situation,” he said, adding that the fire brigade department acted promptly and extinguished the fire.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2015.