KARACHI, July 28: A fire broke out in a private office located on the fifth floor of a building on I.I. Chundrigar Road on Saturday. No deaths or injuries have been reported and fire-fighters managed to tame the blaze within five hours.

Flames erupted at the 10-storey Business and Finance Centre, which stands opposite the State Bank of Pakistan building. The fire brigade department sent out 15 fire tenders when it received information at 9.05am, while two snorkels and a rescue vehicle were also sent to the scene. The building was safely evacuated although two fire-fighters fainted due to the smoke and suffered minor bruises.

Deputy Fire Chief Naeem Yusuf told Dawn that the amount of thick black smoke spewing from the building had suggested that the fire was big enough to engulf the entire fifth floor.

“Our team struggled hard and managed to put out the fire in five hours,” he said. “After the smoke dissipated, we found that the blaze had damaged only the one office, where it had broken out.”