Metroville inferno

This refers to the news report, ‘Two firemen, six women among 18 injured in garment factory fire’ (May 5). Incidentally, it happened on the International Fire-fighters Day. According to the report, the third-degree inferno in Metroville, SITE area was fuelled by chemicals stored in an adjacent warehouse. This is not the first incident and it will not be the last. This has happened before. If one needs a reminder of the horrifying destruction a fire can leave in its wake just visit Timber Market where a fire completely destroyed the market, a housing complex and broke many hearts. In a city as big as Karachi, fires of the magnitude we witnessed on May 5 are not new.
But then the rescue operation is carried out in an orderly manner. With narrow lanes and haphazardly constructed buildings, the otherwise important task of safe evacuation of people gets entangled in other less important jobs like clearing the passage to a fire site, removing obstacles to approach roads, etc. How bad do things look? As always the fire was extremely intense but fire-fighters were not on time. They also faced difficulty in putting out the fire because the factory was located on a narrow street. Later the fire-fighters ran out of foam. The writing is on the wall. One cannot stress enough the importance of providing defensible space so that heavy fire engines can manoeuvre easily.
Asra Sheikh
Karachi