KARACHI, Nov 30: The city’s fire department was called out twice to tackle two separate fire incidents in as many adjoining localities from late Thursday night to Friday afternoon.

As many as 150 huts, housing more than 700 people, were burnt down when a huge fire broke out in Shanti Nagar on Friday afternoon.

This was the second such incident, surprisingly in adjoining areas, in less than 12 hours. According to an official of the fire department, the blaze erupted at around 2.30pm in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal locality home to many gypsy families.

The official, who was not sure of the exact cause of the fire, suspected that the blaze was the result of a cooking flame which spread within no time due to wooden structures.

He said that five fire tenders took part in the fire fighting operation. “It took more than two hours to control the situation as a large number of people had to be evacuated from the residential area,” he said.

Earlier, around 150 shops were gutted when a fire engulfed a furniture market in Gharibabad late Thursday night. Officials of the fire department and eyewitnesses said that one of the shops in the market situated along main Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi Road caught fire minutes after a blast was heard by the area people. The fire later spread to other shops.

“There is no clue which could establish the reason of the blast and then the fire. We suspect that it was a gas cylinder blast,” said an official.

He explained that the fire fighting operation was greatly hindered by darkness. However, more than 20 tenders managed to control the fire after almost five hours, he said.

“The markets have more than 200 shops. The incident damaged some 150 shops completely and losses are believed to be in millions,” he added.