Firefighters overcome operational hitches to douse warehouse blaze

Water supply runs out mid-operation, fire tenders stuck in traffic jams; mayor orders officers to close down chemical warehouses built in populated areas

A massive fire broke out on Friday afternoon in a medicine warehouse located on the ground floor of a three-storey residential building, situated in the middle of a highly commercial area near Denso Hall. A fire fighter was also reported to have been injured.

The fire that took over five hours to completely extinguish, died down only after it spread to three storeys of a neighbouring private school’s building.

Fire fighters with the help of six water bowsers had initially put out 90 percent of the fire when they ran out of water. The gap resulted in the blaze intensifying. If the tankers running out of water was not unfortunate enough, the remaining fire tenders could not make it to the site owing to traffic jams on main MA Jinnah and nearby roads.

At least 10 fire tenders managed to completely put the fire out in the two buildings late in the evening.

While no casualties or high numbers of injuries were reported, the presence of a chemical warehouse in the middle of such a highly populated area had not only the general public, but also the city mayor talking.  

City mayor

Upon reaching the site, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar said that having such storage facilities in the middle of the city was indeed very dangerous.

He, however, assured to not only investigate how a chemical storage was allowed to be built in such a densely populated area, but also ordered the deputy commissioner to close down all such storages in the city immediately. Briefing the media on the rescue operation, Akhtar said the cause of fire was yet to be identified.