Burned alive: Blaze in shanties claims five lives

KARACHI:

There is a history of mysterious fires erupting in the shanties of Karachi. These fires are merciless, destroying everything in their wake and leaving behind the poor dwellers to mourn the loss of their loved ones under the open sky.

An elderly woman, a newly-wed woman, a seven-year-old boy and two teenagers — a boy and a girl — were burnt to death when a fire broke out at their make-shift abodes in Block 2 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The shanties were located on a vacant 600-yard plot. According to witnesses and fire department officials, the fire erupted in one of the huts and spread so quickly that they hardly had any time to react.

The fire enveloped the victims’ entire bodies and they collapsed on the spot, their last-few moments filled with agonising screams leaving behind a horrid memory for their loved ones. Three others sustained minor burn injuries and are being treated at a private hospital.

"I lost my child — my everything," cried Ahmed Buksh, the father of one of the victims, 14-year-old Sarfaraz. Buksh is a labourer by profession and was not present at his hut when the incident occurred. Most of the victims were asleep when the fire broke out.

Cooking gone wrong

The dozen-or-so huts at the plot had been home to around 35 people, including women and children, for the last couple of years. The victims hailed from Bahawalpur. "The fire broke out from a make-shift stove where something was being cooked," narrated one of the occupants, Farman. "It quickly spread to the gas cylinder which exploded, causing it to spread even more quickly to the other huts."

On receiving information of the incident, fire tenders rushed to the site.  "We also found one body in pieces which suggests that he might have been killed due to the gas cylinder explosion," said a firefighter, Abdul Raheem.

The victims were identified as 80-year-old Saiba Bibi, 20-year-old Mehnaz, seven-year-old Mohsin Aslam, 14-year-old Sarfaraz and 15-year-old Rabia.

Investigations

Police officials also inspected the site, but have yet to ascertain the cause of the blaze. Based on initial investigations, the officials suspect it was an accidental fire. “The fire apparently erupted accidently but we are further investigating the incident,” said District East SSP Javed Jiskani. The officer claimed they were also inquiring about the owner of the plot as no one had approached the police to claim its ownership thus far.

Minutes after the first fire erupted, another blaze started at the shanty town in Block-8 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, destroying at least 35 huts and wounding three occupants. Another fire broke out at Block-7 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, destroying three huts.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2015.