Fire eruption at Karachi Company plaza damages bank

Islamabad

A sudden fire erupted on the first floor caused by UPS battery gutted a part of a commercial bank located in Awami Trade Centre of G-9 Markaz on Friday night.

The management of the Awami Trade Centre said the fire was result of a blast in battery of UPS installed inside the bank which was closed at that time. “The bank was closed and no security guard was present at that time,” said the owner of the centre.

The firefighters of CDA’s Firefighting and Disaster Management directorate reached the spot immediately after receiving report of the fire.  Had there been any security guard present there to open the bank, the fire could have been controlled in initial stages and there could be minimum loss.

The eye-witnesses who are employees of the trade centre said the fire started from a smoke and in a few minutes, it converted into fire which spread to the whole first floor building.

An official of CDA said the fire started at 8:30 pm on Friday and it was extinguished by 9:30 pm and it was prevented from spreading to other floors of the multi storey plaza.

An official of management of the building said the building plan of the Awami Trader Centre was prepared as per latest trends with all the arrangement existing there to meet any untoward incident like fire. He said the management could have controlled the fire initially if lock of the bank was opened by a security guard who unluckily was not present there.

“We have latest equipment to meet such a situation and the fire could have controlled the fire in early stages had the bank premises not locked,” he said.