KARACHI, July 16: A fire broke out in a congested building in the old city area on Saturday morning, which was extinguished by the fire fighters in an hour. The fire erupted at around 10:45am in a godown of garment items located at the first floor of an old building in Mithadar. Four fire tenders were dispatched to put out the fire, which was brought under control by noon. No one was reported injured.

Chief Fire Officer Kazim Ali said that the fire fighters could not find entrance of fire tenders and they could hardly succeed in taking one of the fire tenders inside the building premises.

The fire fighters, however, saved 95 per cent goods from burning. Electric short-circuit might be the cause of the incident as the entire building did not have concealed wiring. All the electric wires were visible and mingled with each other posing threat to the lives of the building users.

He said that no proper arrangements were carried out in the building for emergency entrance and exit. The building had small godowns of toxic and inflammable chemicals besides other items, posing a constant threat of a major disaster.