LAHORE: A committee has launched a probe into the Hafeez Centre inferno as an official of Pakistan Navy’s fire brigade (Lahore chapter) sees delay in the use of foaming as a cause of quick expansion of fire to hundreds of shops.

The hapless traders, on the other hand, have demanded that the government announce a handsome compensation package for all those whose shops and goods worth billions have been reduced to ashes.

“We reached here around 8am along with our two fire brigades in a bid to help the civic agencies extinguish fire. But now, you see it is 6pm and fire is still there and expanding despite availability of a number of fire brigades and fighters from the Rescue 1122, City Government (Metropolitan Corporation), Cantonment boards and Pakistan Navy,” Rizwan, an official of Pakistan Navy’s Lahore fire brigade unit, told Dawn. He was supervising the fire extinguishing work by his colleagues.

Asked about the reason behind eruption of fire and its expansion within a short time in morning, he said: “Apparently the fire erupted because of a short-circuit. But it expanded fast as it seems there was no or delay in use of foaming in extinguishing the fire,” he added.

Hapless traders seek compensation amidst losses of billions

According to information, foam is considered to be the most suitable fire-extinguishing medium for flammable and combustible liquids. Stable aqueous foam can be helpful in extinguishing a flammable or combustible liquid fire by the combined mechanisms of cooling, separating the flame/ignition source from the product surface, suppressing vapors and smothering. Foaming (fire extinguishers) is appropriate to use on category A and B fires but are used in different ways depending on the type of fire they are being used on.

The official said when the fire started expanding to second floor shops, its intensity was not so high. But when the fire-fighters broke the glasses, they should have started using foam to extinguish the fire. “But they, perhaps, didn’t use it that led to fire expansion to 400 shops,” he said, adding that Navy’s fire-fighters who had brought two fire brigades also took out various unconscious shopkeepers from the blown up area.

A spokesperson for the Punjab Emergency Department (Rescue 1122), while speaking to Dawn, dispelled the impression and claimed that foaming method was timely used. “Our teams used foam timely as it always remain available in the fire brigades. Actually the fire’s intensity was too much and it couldn’t be extinguished despite using foam,” she said and added: “All shops were nothing short of bombs since there were electronics goods, batteries etc that aggravated the fire,” she said.

She said the Rescue 1122 and other departments’ fire-fighters worked hard to extinguish the fire. “But what we can do when there are no fire hydrants in this and other buildings and no implementation of fire safety codes that are considered very important in several countries,” she bemoaned.

A number of traders spent the whole day in front of the Hafeez Centre. “Our store / warehouse of computer accessories (worth Rs100 million to 150 million) situated at the second floor burnt to ashes,” Sajjad, a trader, told Dawn. He said the fire destroyed everything in 400 of the 900 shops of Hafeez Centre.

“I think that the total loss seems to be estimated at Rs4-5 billion,” he said. He demanded that the government immediately announce a package to compensate the affected traders.

Meanwhile, the Lahore commissioner constituted a 14-member committee to probe the fire tragedy. According to a notification, the committee led by DC Mudassir Riaz will dig out the underlying causes of fire incident, assess the loss of property, examine infrastructural stability of the building and fix responsibility and submit its report within seven days.

“The committee shall submit a preliminary report within next 24 hours and a detailed one within seven days to the Lahore commissioner,” reads the notification.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2020