Up in flames: Three shops gutted in mall fire

SUKKUR:

Three shops were gutted as a fire broke out at a mall near the Clock Tower roundabout late on Tuesday night.

A fire erupted on the first floor of Glamour Shopping Mall, gutting three computer shops and inflicting heavy losses on the owners. Fire brigades from Sukkur and Rohri controlled the blaze after two hours of hectic efforts, stopping the flames from spreading to other shops. The ground and first floor of the mall house mobile and computer shops.

Saifullah, the owner of one of the burnt shops, told The Express Tribune that he had shut down the shop, which he had established five years ago with an investment of Rs800,000, at around 9:30pm on Tuesday night. "At about 11:15pm, one of the other shopkeepers called me to tell me that my shop was on fire," he recounted. "The blaze was so intense that it was impossible to go near the shop."

Saifullah explained that he habitually switched off the main electricity switch and UPS before closing the shop and he had done so on the night of the incident as well. He said that the electricity meters and service wires of the nearby shops were burnt to ashes, adding that the cause of the fire had yet to be ascertained.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2015.