Technical committee to investigate Islamabad shopping mall blaze

A technical committee is being set up to investigate the fire that erupted at a shopping mall in Islamabad's F-8 on Sunday.

Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon says the matter will be taken forward in light of the report of the technical committee.

He said that the committee will investigate whether emergency drills were ever conducted and whether the alarm system and fire extinguishing system in the mall worked or not.

Memon said that in case of an emergency, exit and rescue procedures from the mall will also be reviewed.

Earlier, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had decided to conduct a post-fire structure stability audit of all the high-rises in Islamabad.

The decision was taken in a meeting headed by CDA Chairman Captain (r) Muhammad Usman Younis on Monday, which decided that all the buildings with heights above 50 feet would be put to fire audit.

It was also decided that high-rise buildings would be tested for real-time mock exercises. The meeting also observed that there was a need to improve emergency services response and to equip emergency disaster cells with the latest equipment.

The CDA chairman also announced to award certificates to the staff of Rescue 1122, Rawalpindi for actively participating in rescue and fire extinguishing work.

On Sunday, hundreds of families were busy shopping and dining at different floors of the Islamabad mall when a massive blaze broke out in the food court on the 4th floor of the shopping centre.

The fire was brought under control after two hours, the CDA administration confirmed, the cooling process, later, continued for over an hour. Islamabad Police said rescue teams pulled out people trapped in the mall via a rear entrance before carrying out a search operation inside the building.

As a precaution, the Mall and its allied residential towers were sealed till the technical team reports on the structural capability of the towers after the fire incident.