Five suffocate in plaza fire

LAHORE: Five people suffocated and six others were in a critical condition after a fire erupted at a restaurant located in Garden Height plaza in the Garden Town police area on Tuesday morning.

The cause of the fire was yet to be known. It erupted and spread to two floors of the plaza. Rescue 1122 using 10 storey-tender ladder vehicle evacuated over 11 victims who were unconscious and shifted them to the hospital where five of them were pronounced dead. Four of the deceased were identified as Shakeel Yasin, 15, Talib Hussain, 30, Shahbaz, 25 and Shahid Nazeer, 40.

Rescuers said the fire erupted at around 06:30am in the morning at the ground floor and spread to the other floors. Rescue 1122 Fire Service responded to the emergency within no time. The fire engulfed the offices, shops and housing apartments situated in the seven-storey plaza within minutes. At least 20 fire tenders of Rescue 1122, including a 10-storey tender ladder, were used for fire fighting.

Thick smoke billowed into the sky and spread in the entire plaza due to burning of a lot of combustion material. A rescue official said that the people in the apartment were asleep and were affected due to smoke as they had no burns on their bodies at the time of their evacuation. The incident also created panic in the locality.

Heavy contingent of police, experts of Punjab Forensic Science Agency and Police Crime Scene Unit also reached the spot. They collected forensic evidences from there and recorded the statements of the eye-witnesses. Police also took Aleem, the owner of the plaza, into custody for investigations.

Deputy Commissioner Sameer Ahmad and Lord Mayor Mubashir also visited the place. While speaking on the occasion, Mubashir said that the government was not responsible for everything. The plaza owners should themselves take care of safety measures installed in their buildings, he maintained. It took the firefighters at least four hours to completely extinguish the fire.

It is worth mentioning here that most of the high-rise buildings in the metropolis were constructed in violation of fire-safety protocols which lead to massive disaster especially in summer.

A Rescue 1122 spokesperson said there was no fire alarm in the building and the people living in the apartment were unaware of the emergency. They were also unaware of the emergency exit. He said the emergency exit was one thing and being its knowledge to use in case of emergency by every resident was another.

Building safety bylaws state that the map of the building, including fire safety exits, should be pasted on it and should be in the knowledge of every resident of the building that was missing in this case.

Rescue 1122: Punjab Emergency Services/Rescue 1122 Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer has directed all the district emergency officers (DEOs) of the province to assist the law enforcement agencies during emergency management besides educating the citizens about the rights and responsibilities of healthcare providers.

He directed the officers while addressing the concluding ceremony of two-day “De-Escalation for Violence Course” organised for all the DEOs at the Emergency Services Academy on Tuesday.

He said Rescue 1122 was responding to average 950 road accidents daily in Punjab while average 1,000 people were provided with emergency medical treatment. Electrocuted: A mother of seven was electrocuted allegedly by her husband over a domestic dispute in the Kahna police area on Tuesday.

The victim, Nasreen, 40, a resident of Kahna, had gone to her parents’ home in Kasur after a quarrel with her husband Ashraf. She came back a couple of days back and on the day of the incident, she died from electric shocks under mysterious circumstances. The victim’s family alleged she was killed by her husband. However, the victim’s children told police that it was an accident. Police have collected evidences and started investigations. The body has been removed to moruge.

Body found: A 24-year-old man was found dead in a canal in the Moghalpura police jurisdiction on Tuesday. The body of the man, yet to be identified, was floating in the canal near Dharampura underpass. Police reached the scene and removed the body to morgue.The victim was wearing blue jeans and t-shirt. Investigation is underway.