35 shops gutted in Saddar cloth market blaze

Published November 15, 2021
(Clockwise) Flames devour portions of the market exterior as a man takes away valuables from his shop towards safety; a fire engine sprays water to put out the blaze that broke out at the Saddar Cooperative Market on Sunday.— PPI / Shakil Adil / White Star
(Clockwise) Flames devour portions of the market exterior as a man takes away valuables from his shop towards safety; a fire engine sprays water to put out the blaze that broke out at the Saddar Cooperative Market on Sunday.— PPI / Shakil Adil / White Star

KARACHI: Around 35 shops in the Saddar Cooperative Market were gutted when a huge fire broke out on Sunday, according to officials and witnesses.

They said the fire erupted in a shop located on the ground floor and it rapidly spread to the first floor. The fire engulfed several cloths and other items shops, but no one was hurt in the incident as the famous market was closed on account of weekend.

Commissioner of Karachi Iqbal Memon told Dawn that the blaze started around 6.45pm and he reached there in 10 minutes to supervise the whole operation. “It’s a cloths market and the fire reached third category within a few minutes,” he said.

He said that he called the Karachi Metropolitan Cor­poration to send more fire engines as initially there were only a few.

Mr Memon said that realising the gravity of the situation he also spoke to officials of Pakistan Navy and Karachi Port Trust to send more fire engines to put out the fire.

The officials of the Karachi Water and Sew­erage Board were directed to send more bowsers while the DIG-traffic was asked to divert the traffic.

“Within one hour, fire was under control,” claimed the commissioner. However, the ‘cooling work’ continued till late in the night.

He said that there were estimated to be over 300 shops in the market and the fire staff reported that about 35 shops caught fire and suffered damages.

The exact cause of the fire and estimation of financial loss could not be made immediately.

DIG-South Javed Akbar Riaz said that as the blaze was categorised as a third-degree fire, the police cordoned off the Cooperative Market in Saddar to prevent theft or damage to property.

He said that no one was hurt in the fire. He also said that the cause of the fire was not known yet.

Preedy SHO Sajjad Khan said that around 18-20 fire engines belonging to the fire brigade department of the KMC and other institutions managed to control the blaze.

Some shopkeepers alle­ged that the fire engines reached the scene about one-hour late.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Climate resilience
28 Nov, 2023

Climate resilience

It is critical to ensure climate resilience of the economy through sound climate-related public investment management.
Condemned to die
28 Nov, 2023

Condemned to die

ANOTHER day in Kohistan, another jirga-mandated murder of a girl. Her ‘crime’: dancing with boys in a video that...
Price of politics
28 Nov, 2023

Price of politics

THE big parties are not at all shy about the high price they have set on political ambition. According to a recent...
Lofty promises
Updated 27 Nov, 2023

Lofty promises

The true test for political parties will lie in the execution of plans they make before the polls.
PSX performance
27 Nov, 2023

PSX performance

THE relentless bulls have pushed away the bears — at least for now. The benchmark KSE-100 index touched a new record...
Democratic imperative
27 Nov, 2023

Democratic imperative

THE recent march in Lahore, led by the Progressive Students Collective, illustrates the urgent call from Pakistan’s...