RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government on Monday sought help from the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) to determine the main cause of a house fire in which seven members of a family lost their lives at Chaklala Scheme-III.

Officials said the bodies of the victims showed that none of them had received any burn injury in the inferno in their house on June 17, making the incident a mystery for the investigators.

Though the police called forensic experts from Lahore, they have not finalised a report. The provincial government also formed a fact-finding committee under the chairmanship of Commissioner Rawalpindi Zahid Saeed to find out the main cause of the fire.

On Monday, the committee held a meeting which was presided over by the commissioner and attended by District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar Dall, Rescue 1122 and Iesco officials.

After the meeting, the commissioner told Dawn that the committee had checked the call response time of the emergency service.

“Rescue 1122 received the call from Mohammad Javed, a neighbour of the victims, about the fire at 5:06am and sent the firefighting staff to the spot within seven minutes.”

Mystery over death of seven members of family is yet to be solved

He said Iesco had been requested to send its experts to determine the cause of the fire and also confirm if it was due to a short circuit. “The Iesco officials will submit their initial report within a day and a detailed report in a day or two,” he said.

The commissioner added that the experts would find out if the short circuit had occurred before the fire or after it.

“Obviously, if there was a short circuit after the fire, the flames would have erupted due to some other reasons,” he explained.

In reply to a question about the forensic report, the commissioner said it would take two more days as the provincial government had tasked the experts to check the main cause of the death of the victims and the fire incident.

The experts have collected samples to prepare the two reports.

He said after the fire, the city district government Rawalpindi had been directed to ensure safety measures in all the commercial buildings and shopping malls.

He said the CDGR had also been directed to ensure that there were no small industries in residential areas.

When contacted, Sattar Khan, the SHO Airport police station, said they were waiting for the forensic report to initiate further investigations into the case.

The statements of the relatives of the deceased have already been recorded, the SHO added.

He said the Iesco experts collected samples from the gutted house on Monday evening.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2015

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