April 14, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1429

KARACHI, April 13: An investigation into the recent spate of fire incidents at industrial units and offices has revealed that not only have over 3,000 people lost their jobs as a result of such incidents, but that the fires also forced the shifting of many production facilities from the city.

The patterns and facts came to light as a result of investigations conducted by a team of senior government officials and experts into the fires that have in recent months shown a sharp increase in occurrence.

The investigation established that over 3,000 people – most of them labourers – lost their jobs in recent months because of the fires that hit several industrial units in the first quarter of the current year. In some cases, the fires were severe enough to prompt the units to remove their production facilities from Karachi.

“1,800 people were rendered jobless by just two of the fires, on the premises of a chemical/paint manufacturing company and a home appliances manufacturer,” said a source privy to the investigation team’s findings. “After the fires, 1,200 employees lost their jobs at one of the units while at the other, 600 labourers were turned away after the unit was gutted with no chance of the revival of operations in the near future.”

Similarly, the source said, fires at the Korangi and Landhi furniture and timber markets stripped over 700 people of their livelihoods as shops with millions of rupees at stake were burnt to ashes.

“Similar incidents that hit Iqbal Market on M.A. Jinnah Road and Saddar’s Electronics Market had similar effects on the workforce,” said the source, adding that the team had conducted a total of 14 visits to different fire-affected sites and met the owners and management staff of the buildings, structures and markets. “In most of the cases, the fires were controlled after having inflicted beyond-repairable damage to certain areas and structures,” said the source citing the investigation team’s findings.

Incidents on holidays

After visiting various fire-affected industrial units and gathering data from the units’ managements, the team noticed that in the case of buildings that were either owned by the government or were given over for government use, fires had broken out predominantly on Sundays or other public holidays.

“This renders the fires at these buildings more suspicious than those at other facilities,” said the source. “There have been two fires at the PNSC building, for example, both times on Sundays when no staff were present except security personnel who had access to only certain parts of the facility.” Similarly, the source pointed out, last month’s fire at the Board of Revenue coincided with the two-day provincial holiday granted on the occasion of Eid Milad-un-Nabi (PBUH).

The pattern identified by the investigation team fans to some extent the conspiracy theories floated at the time of the fires’ occurrence: that it was no coincidence that important government buildings in the city, such as the PNSC building and Radio Pakistan, were engulfed by flame on holidays.

Inadequate fire safety measures

Government buildings aside, officials said that the spate of fires could be blamed on the dry weather in the past few months, coupled with inadequate precautionary measures taken by the occupants.

“The spell of dry weather this year was a little longer than average during the past few months,” said Chief Fire Officer Saleem Ehtasham. “In such situations, gusty winds ignite fires in open areas, and if you go through the recent incidents, you see that the fires started in vast, open areas.”

He added, however, that the buildings that suffered fires in the past few months were rendered vulnerable to such incidents by open electric wiring that was not properly maintained by the management. “The number of incidents would have been much lower had the affected buildings taken proper precautionary measures against fires,” said the chief fire officer. “Unfortunately, our urban lifestyle does not allow for such measures or train citizens to adopt them and make fire safety a part of their lives.”

The city government recently warned construction companies to ensure that fire safety measures were put in place in up-coming projects. The Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) has also initiated a campaign to check for fire protection measures in the city’s commercial buildings and has charged several owners for violating regulations.”