Traffic grinds to a halt as warehouse in Mauripur catches fire

A depot situated near the Mauripur Truck Stand was gutted in a massive fire that broke out on Thursday afternoon. Traffic on the Mauripur Road and adjacent areas came to a standstill while firefighters struggled to put the blaze out.

Fire brigade officials told The News that the fire erupted in the depot situated at the truck stand’s gate number six at 12:46pm. A storage house for clothes and chemicals, all hell broke loose at the truck stand when chemical drums exploded. 

Initially, two fire tenders were dispatched to the spot but three additional fire trucks had to be called in.

As per information provided by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) fire brigade central control room at 7:00pm, the fire fighting operation was still going on.

However, KMC’s Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Tehseen Ahmed informed The News at 7:15pm that the fire had been put out and that the cooling process was being carried out at the site.

SP Mauripur Arif Aziz said the fire broke out in a depot where chemicals, clothes and other goods supposed to be transported to up-country were stored.

He added that the gate would be made operational for routine activities as soon as the cooling process would be completed. The SP added that cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained. 

A massive disruption in the area’s routine activities was witnessed following the fire as a huge number of commuters remained stuck on Mauripur Road and its connecting arteries for hours.

The situation took a turn for the worse when goods’ transporters began their routine transportation after a 10-day strike.

The road comes under one of the main routes used by freight carriers to transport goods to and from the city.

The transporters had gone on strike to protest the Supreme Court’s decision restricting movement of heavy vehicles in the city from 6am to 11pm.

The ruling was given on a petition seeking directives for authorities concerned to act on the city’s worsening traffic situation.