KARACHI: At least four firefighters died and a number of others injured when one of the many factories where they were in action to douse a massive blaze for the last 24 hours in Karachi, was collapsed on Thursday.
The fire broke out in the industrial unit in New Karachi’s Gabol Town on Wednesday morning which later spread to four factories. An army of firefighters backed by fire engines and snorkels were involved in the operation to control the fire for over 24 hours now but in vain.
The main factory housing garments material came down crumbling in the wee hours of Thursday amid cooling process burying a number of people including the firefighters.
The firefighters experienced a hell of situation as the blaze was reigniting again and again.
The flames-filled building suddenly collapsed burying over a dozen firefighters who were rescued and later rushed to a nearby hospital where four of them breathed their last.
The firefighters who lost their lives were identified as 40-year-old Mohsin Sharif, 40-year-old Khalid Shahzad, 35-year-old Sohail and 55-year-old Afzal.
Fire brigade official Arif Mansoori said all the 13 injured were also firefighters.
The wounded were identified as Nadeem, Arif, Abbas, Abdul Hakeem, Amanullah, Rehan, Abdullah Baig, Nadeem son of Hashim, Muhammad Riaz, Shoaib, Ijaz Kazim, Arif son of Ali Muhammad and Raheem.
The Gabol Town police said that the fire erupted in Usman and Sons Bedsheet Company in Sector-16-B located on Shehla Raza Road. Area SHO Saqlain said the blaze had erupted in a multi-storey building of the factory at around 7:30am on Wednesday. He said due to massive magnitude of the blaze, fire engines from across the city were called in.
He said the four floors of the six-storey building had been cleared and work to douse the fire on the remaining two floors was still under way when the accident happened. The officer said that initial reports suggested that a short circuit caused the fire.
Karachi Administrator Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rahman had said on Wednesday that 10 fire tenders and bowsers participated in the operation in the New Karachi Industrial Area.
The Administrator Karachi supervised the extinguishing process himself and instructed the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) to keep the fire brigade personnel present at the site till the fire is completely extinguished and the cooling process is completed, said a spokesperson of the KMC.