May 21, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8,1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, May 20: A huge warehouse, with more than 29 containers full of smuggled cloth worth millions of rupees, was gutted by fire which erupted supposedly due to short-circuit at Bara, Khyber Agency, in the wee hours of Monday.

Sources and eyewitnesses told Dawn that one of the container caught fire at 2.30am and within no time it engulfed the whole goodown.

Those who had their stocks in the warehouse and were destroyed in the fire are: Irshad Khan - US$80,000; Ehsanullah - US$100,000; Musafir Khan - US$200,000; Haji - US$50,000; Mulla Jan Haji - US$400,000; Mumtaz Khan - US$200,000; Ahmed Gul Trakheil - US$160,000; Haji Naseer - US$200,000.

Eyewitnesses said two fire engines arrived at 4am from the city fire brigade station and went back at 6am without being able to extinguish the blaze.

Later, two more fire engines arrived at the burning warehouse, but by that time the stocks had already perished.

On Monday morning, another godown at Bara stacked with lumber caught fire again said to be due to short-circuit and destroyed stocks worth Rs300,000.

The same morning Asim Match Factory in Hayatabad Industrial State went into flames destroying sulphur, wood and wax worth Rs3 million.

According to eyewitnesses some wax drums had exploded in the factory which hit the two other factories - Noor Mehal Factory and Alam Match Factory - as well. Luckily, the workers there were able to extinguish the fire.

The director of the unfortunate factory lamented that even though there were 17 match factories in Hayatabad Industrial State there was no fire brigade station there.