11 dead as fire erupts in Karachi’s shopping mall

F.P. Report

KARACHI: As many as 11 people lost their lives while several others were feared trapped as a massive fire erupted in a multi-storey shopping mall at Karachi’s Rashid Minhas Road on Saturday morning. The rescue officials said the fire broke out on the fourth floor and engulfed the other floors of the RJ Shopping Mall caught fire at 6:30am.

The officials faced difficulty in the rescue operation due to huge smoke in the building. The victims died due to suffocation or severe burns. Several people fainted due to the fire. The condition of seven people is stated to be critical. The blaze suddenly broke out on second floor of the building but very soon it spread to fourth, fifth and sixth floors of multi-storey RJ Mall, a shopping centre located on Rashid Minhas Road. According to fire brigade authorities, a faulty generator placed on the roof of the shopping centre was the cause of the fire.

Chief Fire Officer Ishtiaq Ahmed said the intense fire erupted at 6:30am. He said there were 45 people inside the mall that were rescued. He claimed that there was no fire fighting or alarm system in the building, adding that the fire that erupted on the second floor reached till the sixth.

Rescue officials said that two vehicles of the fire brigade were busy extinguishing the flames while two more fire tenders and a snorkel were rushed to the spot after receiving information about the fire. Later the number of fire-fighting vehicles rose to 10 including two snorkels and eight fire tenders More than 50 people were rescued from the burning building but a number of people were still trapped inside, said rescue officials. The injured people were shifted to a nearby hospital where condition of eight them was said to be serious.

An emergency was declared in Jinnah Hospital as an unspecified number of people were still stuck inside the shopping centre. Due to the smoke filling the upper floors of the building, rescue personnel faced difficulties in carrying out the relief operation. Later, the fire spread to the lower floors of the building, said the fire-fighters.

The rescue officials later said the fire was brought under control to a great extent and the cooling process was underway on one of the floors. Dozens of shops in the building were reduced to ashes due to the blaze which was brought under control after three hours of hectic efforts. The chief fire-fighting officer said there was no fire-fighting equipment installed in the building, nor there was any emergency exit. Dozens of shops and offices adjacent to the building were also gutted. The injured people were shifted to a nearby hospital where the condition of eight of them was said to be serious.

Three of the deceased have been identified as Kareem Bakhsh, Muhammad Younas and Kashif, said Jinnah Hospital’s Dr Nosheen. She further said that Kashif was a finance manager with a call centre. She said the deceased had burn injuries on their bodies. One of the deceased shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital was identified as 32-year-old Salman. One body and an injured were taken to the civil hospital also. The injured was identified as 14-year-old Atif. Officials said eight fire engines, two snorkels and a bowser were engaged in the fire extinguishing operation, which took at least four hours to complete. After dousing the flames, a cooling and rescue operation was underway.

Taking to X, the Mayor wrote: “KMC Fire Department has so far confirmed that there have been 9 casualties in the fire incident.”

“Search process for trapped people still continues,” he added in the post. Sindh Caretaker Chief Minister Maqbool Baqar has expressed profound grief over the loss of precious lives in the incident. He directed the Karachi commissioner to expedite the rescue operation.

The chief minister has asked authorities concerned to provide immediate medical aid to the injured. Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori also took notice of the incident and expressed grief over the loss of lives. He has sought a report into the incident from the Karachi commissioner.