ISLAMABAD: Another fire occurred at the capital’s weekly bazaar late Monday night, gutting 26 stalls on the western side of the market and causing losses of more than Rs2.5 million.

Police said the affected section consisted of stalls selling livestock, edibles, hosiery, plastic and metal goods and secondhand clothing.

The watchman for the section has also disappeared, police said. They said the fire broke out after 10pm and spread quickly, engulfing over two dozen stalls.

It took hours to extinguish the fire, although police, firefighters and paramedics arrived at the scene shortly after they received the information. Hosiery, clothing, cartons, furniture, plastic and metal goods and crockery worth millions of rupees were completely burned, police said.

They said the cause has yet to be ascertained and an investigation is ongoing. Cables, gas cylinders, UPS and batteries kept in the area were examined, but did not help determine the cause of the fire.

Police said there was a report that food was also prepared in the area.

They said the watchman had disappeared and there was no trace of him thus far. Efforts to locate him are in progress, as his statement is vital for the investigation and to determine the cause of the incident, they said, adding that he had guarded the area for several years.

This is the third fire to break out in the weekly marketin 14 months. A massive fire on July 1 gutted more than a hundred stalls, while a fire in August last year destroyed around 650.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2018