KARACHI: Firemen of the Karachi Port Trust and the watchmen scuffled for about a quarter of an hour as a big fire raged in the Thole Produce Yard godowns on Queen’s Road yesterday afternoon [Jan 20], gutting some 10,000 bales of cotton valued at about Rs 50 lakhs.

The fire was reported at 3-15 p.m. The fire-engines of the Karachi Port Trust reached the scene at 3-30 p.m. And delayed by the scuffle, the fire-fighting operation started at 3-45 p.m. — full 30 minutes late.

Meanwhile, as the scuffle went on the flames leapt from cotton bale to cotton bale and from godown to godown and the fire which started in godown No. 16 had spread to godown No. 17 and 18.

All the 20 odd fire-engines of the Karachi Port Trust, the Karachi Municipal Corporation, and the Navy, had to fight the fire for full three hours before they could bring it under control.

For hours, the army of fire-fighters and the batteries of fire-engines had to carry on their pincer movement to bring the raging fire under control once that it had had a fair start unhampered and unchecked.

The scorching heat of the blaze made pedestrians flee the road about 50 yards away; and the godowns presented a picture of a blast furnace with the roaring flames which were prevented from reaching the skies by the tin-sheds of the godowns.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2017