Four firefighters were killed and 11 firefighters among 13 other people were injured after a factory building in Gabol Town that was damaged in a massive fire on Wednesday collapsed during the cooling process in the early hours of Thursday.
The blaze comes a month after a multi-storey building along Karachi’s main artery, Sharea Faisal, had caught fire. However, no loss of life had occurred in the incident. In the latest inferno, firefighters and rescue teams were at the burnt factory when the building suddenly collapsed and buried them. The unharmed volunteers retrieved the deceased and the injured from the rubble. The causalities were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
The firefighters who lost their lives were identified as Mohsin Sharif, 40, Khalid Shahzad, 40, Sohail, 35, and Afzal, 55. The injured were identified as Nadeem, Arif, Abbas, Abdul Hakeem, Amanullah, Rehan, Abdullah Baig, Nadeem Hashim, Muhammad Riaz, Shoaib, Ijaz Kazim, Arif Ali and Raheem.
The families of the victims claimed that the firefighters had not been provided even with the basic equipment required for a firefighting operation, including the firefighter uniform.
The deceased Sharif’s mother said her son had “sacrificed his life for his department, but what has the government and his department done for him or his family? Not a single government official visited us”.
“The department didn’t even provide him a uniform. He died because of a serious head injury. Had his department provided him a helmet, he would’ve been with us now.” The injured Hakeem said the fire had been reigniting repeatedly during the cooling process. “Suddenly the building collapsed and buried us alive,” recalled the firefighter.
The cause of the fire and the subsequent collapse are still being investigated, while the authorities have claimed they would take strict action against those found responsible. Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori visited the site of the incident. He also told Karachi Administrator Dr Saifur Rehman to ensure immediate medical assistance to the injured.
Tessori said that no effort should be spared in providing medical aid to the injured. He also ordered providing him with all the details of the incident. The fire had erupted at the Usman & Sons Bedsheet Company, located on Shehla Raza Road, Sector 16-B, Gabol Town, New Karachi Industrial Area, on Wednesday morning and spread to a nearby factory. The main factory came crumbling down in the wee hours of Thursday during the cooling process.
SHO Muhammad Saqlain said the blaze had started at around 7:30am on Wednesday, adding that due to the massive inferno, fire engines had been called in from across the city. The officer said that four floors of the six-storey building had been cleared, and work to douse the fire on the remaining two floors was under way when the structure collapsed.
He said that an investigation had been launched to ascertain the cause of the fire and the resulting building collapse, adding that strict action would be taken against those found responsible.
JI seeks compensation
Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Thursday lauded the sacrifices of the firefighters in the city, and demanded that the government immediately pay compensation and other dues to the families of the four firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Rehman attended the funerals of the deceased, who had been killed after a factory building in Gabol Town that was damaged in a massive fire on Wednesday collapsed during the cooling process in the early hours of Thursday. Eleven firefighters among 13 other people were also injured in the collapse.
Talking to the media, the JI leader said that money as compensation is not a substitute for a lost life, but it provides some financial relief for a grieving family to continue their journey of life.
He demanded that the Sindh government of the Pakistan People Party immediately pay the dues to the affected families. He said the government should not only provide compensation and the victims’ dues but also bear their children’s education expenses.
Rehman said that unfortunately, according to the routine practice, the government pays post-death allowances one year after the person has lost their life, which is a shameful act.
He said the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s firefighting department has practically been working under the provincial government since long ago, adding that firefighters have been facing many problems due to the “criminal negligence” of the government.
Shedding some light on the political scenario in the city, the JI chief said that the powerful feudal mindset is responsible for the miseries of the people in the urban areas of the province. He vowed that the JI would not abandon the people, and that the party would address all the burning issues in the mega city after securing the mayor’s office.
