GUJAR KHAN: Fire broke out in cooking oil and ghee godowns in Kaliam More area near Mandra on Tuesday afternoon.

According to sources in Rescue 1122, the fire possibly started due to short circuiting and engulfed six godowns, one after another.

Talking to Dawn, Mohammad Wasif Bashir, a supervisor at 1122, said: “The fire broke out at about 2pm. Firefighters from Mandra base of 1122 were dispatched to tackle the situation. Fire continued to spread because cans of cooking oil and ghee were inflammable; there were blastsin two godowns.”

“Observing the gravity of the situation, fire fighters from different bases of 1122 in Rawalpindi, including Sawan, Pir Wadahi and Islamabad were also called in. They made unabated efforts to control the fire,” he added.

According to the 1122 sources, thearmy’s helicopters also participated in extinguishing the fire. “The major problem being faced by firefighters was the blasting canisters of oil, that were in countless in number. Each canister blasts and sprinkles more fuel on the fire,” Mr Bashir said, adding operation to put out the fire was underway and it would be controlled soon.

Police authorities of Rawalpindi and assistant commissioner Gujar Khan were also present. No causality was reported.

According to Mr Saliheen, an official of the godowns, over 200,000 tons of ghee and cooking oil were damaged in the flames, causing a loss of about Rs2 billion to the owners.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2020