Three people pass out as fire guts factory

Karachi

A watchman and two fire fighters were reported to have fallen unconscious, after a massive fire broke out in a plastic factory situated in SITE-B area, in the wee hours ofSunday.

As per an official of the central fire station the fire broke out at around 4:30 am. It took minutes for the entire factory to be in flames.

It took around eight hours of at least 19 fire engines of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and three water bowsers managed to put the fire out.

The cause of the fire could, however, not be ascertained.

According to the fire station official, the watchman and the fire fighters fell unconscious owing to suffocation for the flames were too high.

Not the first, neither the last for that matter, fire to have occurred in the metropolis as labourers working in the city’s industrial areas have grown accustomed to factory fires, with garment factories topping the list.

In 2012, the city witnessed the most brutal factory fire which claimed lives of over 200 labourers after a garment factory located in Baldia Town was engulfed in flames.

With factory owners comfortably flouting labour safety and health laws, surviving a factory job has become an uphill task for labourers and their families for most of them were not provided with any medical facilities nor was monetary compensation paid to them in case of an incident.