KARACHI: A fire gutted hundreds of impounded motorcycles, auto-rickshaws and cars at a parking lot in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sunday, officials said, prompting authorities to launch a probe to ascertain the causes.
Established in 1992, the central vehicle pool, commonly known as 'Nazarat,' in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area is run by the East district and sessions court. It parks unclaimed vehicles or the ones seized by law enforcement for the lack of registration documents.
The impoundment lot, which is largely surrounded by bushes with some residential houses nearby, has witnessed several blazes in the past, including a January 2016 fire that had completely charred some 60 unclaimed vehicles, besides partially damaging 100 others. Another fire had gutted around 50 vehicles at the same site in 2010.
“Hundreds of motorbikes, some cars and rickshaws have been destroyed in the fire that erupted at about 9:50am Sunday morning, but a timely response contained it from spreading to the residential area,” Raja Tariq Hussain, deputy commissioner (DC) of Karachi East district, told Arab News.
"Fire tenders and police arrived within 15 minutes after the fire broke out."
Murad Ali Shah, chief minister of Sindh province that Karachi is the capital of, took notice of the inferno and directed Karachi Commissioner Mohammed Iqbal Memon to submit a detailed report on the damages.
Residents of the area said the timely response saved their houses from major damage, but demanded authorities either shift vehicles from the lot or make proper arrangements to avoid such incidents in future.
“It was a huge fire that we witnessed today. Had the fire tenders not reached timely, the blaze would have engulfed our houses and resulted in a tragedy,” resident Wajahat Ahmed said, adding they had witnessed several fires at the place.
“These bushes are like time bombs for our houses,” he added.
DC Hussain said the Sindh chief secretary had ordered an inquiry to ascertain the causes of the blaze.
“So, if the fire breaks out due to the bushes, they will be permanently removed. If it’s happening due to power transmission lines passing above the place, K-Electric will be asked to take the lines away,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the chief secretary appointed Muhammad Hanif Channa, a provincial secretary, the inquiry officer to “fix responsibility” on individuals and organizations “for [their] negligence or for willful commission of offense of putting public property on fire.”
The inquiry officer, who has to submit a report within seven days, will also present recommendations to avoid such incidents in future.
Karachi, the country's financial hub and home to over 15 million, is known for poor fire safety protocols and has witnessed several fire incidents in industrial, commercial and residential neighborhoods.
Last week, a fire killed a man and injured three others in the basement of a superstore in a high-rise residential building off the city's Kashmir Road. The blaze was doused after 78 hours of rigorous efforts by firefighters.
In November 2020, a fire broke out at the Queen Victoria Market in the Saddar business district, just three days after another blaze gutted over 600 shops in a nearby commercial center, which caused billions of rupees of losses.
In one of the worst fire incidents in Pakistan’s history, flames had ravaged a textile factory complex in Karachi in 2012, killing 289 workers who were trapped behind locked doors. More than 600 others were injured in the same incident.
