KARACHI: Two warehouses in the historical Shri Swaminarayan Temple compound were destroyed by a fire on Friday evening, as residents sharing the wall with the compound fled to safety.

A fireman, Saleem, suffered injuries while struggling to put out the fire that had erupted in the warehouses of plastic stuff at around 4pm. Firefighters managed to stop the raging flames from reaching a chemical godown situated close to the two warehouses, according to fire brigade and police officials.

No loss of life was report, while investigation was under way to ascertain financial loss and cause of fire.

Some witnesses said the fire started from a water cooler and hotpot warehouse, while others said it spread to the chemical store next to it. Although there were no casualties in the incident, the families made to evacuate their homes were extremely distressed. The temple bell was ringing constantly as more and more folk rushed there for pratna or special prayers in their time of need.

“We have been living here for the past 35 years. We play with fireworks on Diwali, Dussehra, etc., but never has anything like this befallen us,” said Reshma Devi Chelaram, who was keeping an eye on her five children after having been made to evacuate her home.

“My husband and older children are trying to go near our little home to at least be able to salvage some of our things before the fire reaches our home but the fire-fighters and police are not allowing them anywhere near the place,” she said.

“We are a poor family. We sell pooja stuff and little trinkets that we have brought over from India on our vendor cart inside the temple area. I had saved some money to buy a tola of gold for my eldest daughter Nirmala’s wedding coming up next year. I had also got some nice dresses stitched for her. Everything is inside our home,” she said.

“My brother, who studies in class six, has his exams these days. His books, notebooks and school bag, too, are inside the house,” said Reshma Devi’s younger daughter Arti, who said that they were entertaining guests at their place and she was preparing tea for them when they realised that there was a fire behind their home. “It must have been 4pm then. The gas supply to all the homes here was stopped then,” she provided.

Laxmi Bai, their next door neighbour, was also worried. “I didn’t even have time to lock up before leaving home. The entrance door is ajar,” she said.

“Our temple trust has been complaining about the existence of the chemical store behind our temple compound for a while. Now this has happened. This is what we were afraid of,” said Balram, another resident of the area. “The flats that you see to your left upon entering the compound belong to the Hindu families who are better off than those living behind the ground in tiny homes. They are really poor people. Hope they don’t have to bear too much damage to their property,” he said.

The water cooler and hotpot warehouse keeper, Mohammad Saeed, was also there. “I don’t know what happened,” he said, “I had locked up the place and had only just reached home when my phone rang and I was informed that there was a huge fire in the warehouse that had also engulfed the chemical store next door and a school nearby and was spreading towards the temple now.”

Meanwhile, the fire tenders were facing a problem reaching the fire from inside due to the congested area. They also ran out of water and had to go back for refills but according to Mithadar SHO Syeda Ghazala who had reached the spot to help in the evacuation process, the time when the fire broke out was also a major problem. “We see peak traffic on M.A. Jinnah Road till 6.30pm and the fire tenders cannot move freely on the road,” she said. “We have closed three traffic intersections up ahead with the help of traffic police but there is still a lot of traffic on the road,” she said.

A fire brigade official said that 16 fire tenders reached the temple and managed to control the blaze by 8pm. However, he added, cooling work continued with the help of three fire tenders till late evening.

City SSP Faizullah Korejo said that the police tended to take action where hazaradous or inflammable material was stocked. However, the senior officer added, there should be ‘some regulation’ over such mushroom growth of warehouses in the old city areas.

Earlier on Friday morning, two floors of a three-storey textile mill, Ideas Textile, in the SITE area were destroyed by a fire.

No loss of life was reported in the incident.

Around 20 fire tenders took part in firefighting and put out the blaze by 11:45am, officials said.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2016