Short circuit: Hafeez Centre closed today due to fire damage

Fire destroys shops on first and second floors of city’s main market for mobile phone and computer products.

LAHORE: Hafeez Centre will remain closed for business on Friday (today) after a fire destroyed shops on the first and second floors of the city’s main market for mobile phone and computer products.

The fire began in Net Pack, a store that sells routers and other networking equipment, on the first floor in the early afternoon. It then spread to CMC, a shop on the second floor above Net Pack. Firefighters arrived at around 2:30pm and put out the fire in two hours. APP reported that firefighter Shahid Hussain was injured in the operation.

Atif, the owner of Net Pack, said he was away at prayers when the fire broke out. He said workers at the shop tried to put out the blaze with fire extinguishers, but they were repelled by the smoke. “The fire engulfed both rooms of the shop within minutes,” he said.

He said the fire appeared to have been started by a short circuit, as the workers had spotted electrical wires on fire. Rescue 1122 officials will investigate the cause of the fire on Friday.

Atif estimated that he had lost goods worth over Rs50 million. He said the fire brigade took over 30 minutes to get to the scene. “There would have been some hope if they had arrived promptly,” he said. Khawaja Attique, the owner of CMC, also said he had lost millions of rupees, but could not put a number on it. “A shipment of electronic equipment had arrived just last night,” he said.

Farooq Butt, the additional secretary of the Hafeez Centre Union, told The Express Tribune that the market would be closed on Friday as the electric wiring in the building had been badly damaged. “The fire reached the third floor of the centre but there was no damage there,” he added.

He said the city government had failed to install an adequate fire extinguishing system in Hafeez Centre, even though it had conducted feasibility studies and made plans to do so.

Butt also criticised MNA Umer Sohail Zia Butt, who came to visit Hafeez Centre during the firefighting operation. “He did nothing but mock and taunt the owners of the shops,” he said. “Even in our time of grief he expected VIP treatment.”

He said that the MNA had told the owner of one of the burnt shops to leave as he thought the owner was a hurdle to the rescue work. “If the owner of the shop must leave, how can he secure his valuables?”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2010.