KARACHI: Firefighters brought a blaze under control at a furniture market near Kamran Chowrangi in Gulistan-e-Johar on Friday, after flames spread to a nearby residential building, officials said.
Four fire tenders and a water bowser were used in the firefighting operation, said the Rescue source. The fire brigade officials said the main blaze had been brought under control and cooling operations were under way to prevent it from reigniting.
The fire also spread to an adjoining residential building, but Rescue 1122 said that the blaze was brought under control. No casualties were reported by the chief fire officer.
Talking to the media after the firefighting operation was over, Chief Fire Officer Humayun Khan said four fire tenders and a water bowser were being used to extinguish the blaze. He confirmed that the fire had been brought under control and said there had been no loss of life.
The cause of the fire and the extent of the financial damage had not been officially established.
Traders’ account
Talking to the media, a shopkeeper, Asghar, said that the market had 20 shops and claimed the fire had caused losses worth crores of rupees. He said the fire was reported to the helpline of the Karachi police Madadgar-15. However, he said that firefighters took around 15 to 20 minutes to arrive on the site, by which time the flames had spread through the market.
Asghar added that the market caught fire last year also. He said the shops had been set up on a commercial plot.
The same market was hit by a major fire on December 31, 2024. Geo News reported at the time that more than 30 shops were gutted, while officials said the cause had not been determined.
No casualties were reported in that incident.
Safety drive after Gul Plaza fire
Following the deadly Gul Plaza inferno in January this year, fire safety in Karachi’s commercial buildings came under scrutiny. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah ordered a province-wide fire safety audit of major government, private and commercial buildings.
During the same meeting, he approved resuming annual safety inspections of commercial buildings, which had been discontinued years earlier.
The Sindh Building Control Authority audit earlier this year found that 90% of buildings surveyed in the city’s eastern, central and southern districts lacked fire-safety arrangements.
