High-rise yet to be cleared for use three days after fire

It remains unclear whether all offices in Saima Trade Tower-II on II Chundrigar Road would open for work as the fire that initially broke out on the building’s 16th floor on Saturday rekindled early on Monday morning. 

As per the fire department, the blaze restarted on the 16th floor at around 1:15am on Monday and two fire tenders were dispatched to put it out. Prior to that, the fire had rekindled on the night between Saturday and Sunday when firefighters were carrying out the cooling process. 

The fire, which was the latest in a series of incidents reported this year, had once again exposed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) fire department’s inefficiencies. 

On a visit yesterday, this scribe was told that water used to extinguish the blaze was still receding from the affected floors of the 19-floor building. Security guards were seen on the ground floor of the building, and the grille door was locked to keep visitors out. 

Rubble was seen scattered around the entrance of the building, and work was going on to remove the debris and reopen the road for vehicular traffic. The security guards deployed on the main gate said the cleanliness work on the affected floors was going on, and the burnt material was being removed.

To a query, the guards maintained that the offices situated till the 15th floor of the building would reopen today (Tuesday), and cleanliness work would continue on the four affected floors.

While KMC Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Tehseen Ahmed said he was too busy to explain why the fire was rekindling at intervals, an operator at the fire brigade’s control room, Babar Ali, said the fire was still burning under the rubble.

“The fire was breaking out repeatedly when occupants of the affected floors tried to remove the debris,” Ali said.

“The fire erupted again on 16th floor of the apartments at 1:15 am on Monday when the rescue team was busy in cleanliness work and removing burnt furniture,” Ali added.

He said the same situation was faced on Saturday night during the cooling process.

“The KMC told the building management to remove burnt material from the affected floors, but the management didn’t pay attention despite repeated reminders,” Ali blamed.

KMC Municipal Services Director Masood Alam, on the other hand, claimed that he had cleared the building at 5am on Sunday. “I was present on the spot and monitoring the firefighting operation,” Alam said, adding that he had declared the building out of danger on completion of the cooling process.

Alam claimed that he was not informed fire rekindling again on Monday night.

He said the 17th and 19th floors of the buildings had been burnt completely and the electrical system of both the floors had reduced to ashes.

The KMC municipal services director said it would be premature to hold anyone responsible as the fire officials had not issued any report in this regard.