Dozens of shops gutted by fire at Abdullah Haroon Road market

In less than three days, another major market of Karachi caught fire on the busy Abdullah Haroon Road, a street in Saddar, the commercial hub of the city, on Wednesday. The Victoria Market erupted just three days after a blaze gutted several shops at the Cooperative Market located nearby.

Fortunately, no loss of life was reported in Wednesday’s fire but the blaze gutted all the shops or warehouses located on the fifth floor of the Victoria Market, which is located next to the Zainab Market.

The fire, according to shopkeepers, broke out at around 11:30am on the fifth floor of the market where most of the shops were used as warehouses. As the fire broke out, the shopkeepers initially attempted to put out the blaze themselves but as they were unable to do so, they informed the fire brigade.

A fire tender present at the Cooperative Market nearby was the first that reached the Victoria Market to control the blaze. Later more fire tenders reached the site. Around 14 fire tenders, several water tankers and a snorkel participated in the extinguishing work and were able to douse the blaze in four hours.

However, just like the Cooperative Market fire, the fire brigade was this time also accused of arriving late at the scene. “The allegations made against the fire department regarding reaching the site after delay and water shortage are baseless,” said Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Chief Fire Officer Mobin Ahmed.

He added that shopkeepers had also dumped clothes on stairs leading to the affected floor of the building and it was difficult to move from the lower floors to the fifth floor. The firefighters had to break the front glass of the market and the extinguishing operation was not easy due to smoke accumulated on the floor, the officer explained. He said that all the shops on the fifth floor, most of which were warehouses, had been gutted by the fire.

The shopkeepers claimed that there were more than two dozen shops on the floor and all of them had been destroyed. District South SSP Zubair Shaikh also visited Abdullah Haroon Road to monitor the measures being taken to extinguish the fire. The road between Zainab Market and Fawara Chowk was temporarily closed while the extinguishing work took place.

The nearby markets such as Zainab Market, Madina Mall and International Market were also evacuated. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Police said they had so far found no criminal act behind the fire. The cooling process was under way till the filing of this news story.

The president of the Victoria Welfare Association of the Victoria Shopping Centre (Zainab Market), Raheel Paracha, said the shopkeepers had incurred around losses worth Rs400 million in the fire, adds our correspondent.

He explained that whereas the fifth floor of the Victoria Market was completely destroyed, some shops on the fourth floor were also damaged. The remaining floors, he said, had been inundated with four-to-five-foot water due to the extinguishing operation. “All of our garments, especially those brought for the winter season, have been submerged in water,” he said, adding that once the cooling process ended, they would be able to ascertain their actual losses.

The president of the welfare association demanded of the government to compensate the shopkeepers for their losses as they were already bearing the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown. When the assistant commissioner was asked about the compensation, he said he could not comment on that.

KMC Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab took notice of the incident and said that an inquiry would be conducted to ascertain how the fire erupted. He added that the protection of lives and properties of the citizens was the prime responsibility of the government and they were taking every possible effort to do it.

Earlier on Sunday, more than 800 shops at the Saddar Cooperative Market were said to have been affected by a fire incident. According to traders of the market, their businesses had been reduced to ashes as 90 per cent of the market was destroyed.