LAHORE, Dec 11: Garments, shoe-manufacturing material, paper rolls and household items worth millions of rupees were reduced to ashes in five fire incidents in the city on Thursday.

A fire broke out in two multi-story warehouses situated at Ahata Mian Sultan at around 2:30pm, reducing winter garments and valuables worth over Rs4 million to ashes.

According to owners, some unidentified people had set three bundles of cloth, lying adjacent to the closed rooms, on fire which engulfed the whole building.

However, officials of City Fire Brigade and Rescue 1122 did not rule out other possibilities such as carelessness and short-circuit.

“After entering the warehouse from its lone passage, I observed fire in three separate bundles of cloth lying outside the garages of warehouses and tried to extinguish it but in vain,” said Ibrahim, who lives in one of the adjacent rented rooms. He said he had not seen anyone setting the bundles on fire.

According to District Fire Officer Raja Altaf, some labourers told him that they saw some flames falling on the cloth when someone was cooking food in a room, situated on the top floor of the adjacent building. He said carelessness on the part of warehouse owners and a burning cigarette could not be ruled out.

Owner of the main warehouse, Kamran Sadiq, alleged that unidentified people had intentionally committed the offence for some unknown reason.

“We have no business rivalry or enmity with anyone, and we purchase garments on credit from Karachi,” he said.

When asked why labourers living in a rented portion of the warehouse did not recognize the miscreants and inform the rescuers timely, he claimed he did not know if they were present in their rooms.

Ruling out the possibility of short-circuit, he said the four-storey building was constructed recently and all the wiring of the plaza was under-ground.

Masha Khan, who had stored his garments in the basement, said he had suffered a loss of up to Rs2 million.

A visit to the spot revealed that fire-fighters took much time to reach the place which was situated in the congested locality of Lunda Bazaar.

Sole and manufacturing material worth millions was gutted when a fire erupted in Rehbar Shoe Factory unit at Fakharabad Ghati in Shahdara early on Thursday. Fire-fighters took at least 10 hours to douse the blaze.

A Rescue 1122 official said the fire erupted in the chemical used in the manufacturing of plastic shoe which intensified the fire.

He said the whole factory was gutted despite launching timely the fire-fighting operation, adding rescue vehicles and rescuers were still at the site to avoid further fire eruption.

In the third such incident, paper rolls and cartons worth hundreds of thousands of rupees were gutted when a fire broke out in a warehouse on Gunpat Road.

The district fire officer said the fire erupted in the godown of Shahzad Munir for the reason yet to be ascertained.

Household items worth in thousands were gutted when a fire erupted in Shaukat Ali’s house in Awan Market of Nishtar Colony.

In another incident, valuables worth thousands of rupees were reduced to ashes when a fire took place in a house near Jain Mandir.