LAHORE: The police and district administration on Monday sealed the Hafeez Centre plaza while declaring its building ‘dangerous’ for business or other use.

An action to the effect was taken on the recommendations of the 14-member committee constituted by the Punjab government for an initial probe into the horrific fire erupted early on Sunday.

The committee, comprising experts from Rescue 1122, police and district government, inspected the plaza on Monday and found many minor and major cracks on the multi-storey building due to intensity of the fire.

According to a related development, the fire incident exposed the association of the Hafeez Centre market as it had ignored a ‘warning’ of the Civil Defence Lahore regarding dysfunctional fire-fighting equipment.

A letter to the effect was written by the Civil Defence Lahore district officer on Aug 18 wherein nine major violations/flaws were reported. (A copy of the letter is available with Dawn).

Building declared ‘dangerous’; plaza union ignored civil defence warning about flaws in firefighting system

Addressing the president and general secretary of the association in his letter, the official pointed out that the [fire] hydrant with overhead water reservoir tank at Hafeez Centre was not functioning during inspection by a team of the Civil Defence.

Similarly, automatic fire alarm and detection system, and fire point and fire control room were not properly maintained, he said.

The official pointed out to them that the full-face masks which were mandatory to place at every floor of the centre to avoid the impact of the fire and dense smoke during emergency situation were ‘missing’.

He also said the fire extinguishers at various floors were not functioning as well.

Through the letter, the Civil Defence officer directed the association’s top office-bearers to rectify the faults, giving them a time period of 15 days.

However, these violations/missing facilities were pointed out after the Rescue 1122 authorities raised the issue while talking to media persons.

Meanwhile, several armed personnel of the Lahore police were deployed on Monday in and around the plaza to stop entry of shopkeepers and other visitors to avoid any mishap due to the damaged structure.

The police officials held meetings with representatives of the Hafeez Centre union and took them into confidence while sharing with them the decision.

The police convinced them not to start business activities till the clearance by the district government authorities.

The traffic police blocked all roads leading to the Hafeez Centre, putting barricades and diverted traffic to alternative routes, causing a great deal of inconvenience to motorists.

Particularly, the Gulberg Main Boulevard was partially banned for any kind of traffic where the police and the traffic officials jointly started patrolling.

A police officialduring inspection of the plaza told Dawn the visiting team feared that the estimated loss may be more than what was being reported on the day of the incident. He said water spray also damaged electronics at ground, first and second floors where the fire could not reach.

Particularly, he said the water accumulated in the basement inflicted major damage on mobile phones and other accessories.

A Rescue 1122 official said most of the fire incidents occurred yearly because of sheer violation of building by-laws and Hafeez Centre lacked facilities and equipment to fight fire.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2020