The fire department of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) has said the element of arson could not be ruled out in the blaze that erupted in New Sindh Secretariat building on Saturday evening because it engulfed all the six floors of the building suspiciously and instantly.
A KMC fire department report says that the blaze destroyed the bulk of the official record of a provincial government department kept in offices on each floor of the building.
The report, submitted by the station officer of the Fire & Rescue Headquarters, Fire Brigade Department, to the metropolitan commissioner, says that on February 24 at about 17:48 hours the fire headquarters received a call from Islamuddin, who informed the headquarters about the fire incident in the Sindh Secretariat building.
Accordingly, the fire department responded immediately and dispatched a fire tender from the Central Fire Station and later reinforced it by dispatching more fire tenders from Saddar, Bolton Market, Lyari and Manzoor Colony fire stations.
By the time fire tenders arrived at the scene, the report says, the crew found out that the rear gate of the building was wide open and a bulk quantity of papers (office record) was on fire, stored in a pit right next to the elevator duct.
The crew surprisingly noted that the fire engulfed instantaneously in quick succession all the six floors of the building in a similar manner, i.e. alongside the elevator duct.
Moreover, it adds, the crew found on each floor, right next to the duct, bundles of papers engulfed in fire on each floor and even in iron cabinets, “which certainly creates doubts leading towards a case of arson”.
However, the report says, the crew successfully contained the blaze within the shortest possible time. No casualty was reported, but the cause of fire could not be ascertained.
On Tuesday, the government had claimed that the official record of the works and services department was not destroyed in the fire incident.
An official handout said a section of the press had reported that the fire, which erupted at about 5:30 in the Sindh Secretariat Building No.1, had damaged or destroyed important documents.
The department rejected as totally baseless and false the allegation that documents were destroyed or damaged in the incident. The handout said all documents were safe.