Death toll of Karachi factory fire rises to 289
A man mourns the death of relatives after a fire erupted in a garment factory in Karachi on September 12, 2012. — Photo by AFP
KARACHI: The death toll from a garment factory fire in Karachi’s SITE area rose to 289 as more bodies were recovered from the gutted building, the city’s top administration official said Wednesday.
“The death toll is 289. This is not final, search for more bodies continues,” commissioner Karachi Roshan Shaikh told AFP.
Karachi city’s police chief Iqbal Mahmood also said rescue teams were still trying to gain access to parts of the factory, which caught fire late on Tuesday, and the death toll could rise.
“We found dozens of people dead in a large room of the factory’s basement. It was totally burnt and parts of it were smouldering, which we put out before shifting the bodies to hospitals,” Karachi fire chief Ehtesham Salim told AFP.
“Our firemen are searching every nook and corner of the factory despite having limited resources to cope with such a grave situation,” Salim said.
He added that the blaze was Karachi’s “biggest fire in terms of deaths in decades”.
Factory workers said that they made plastic utensils and under garments.
The death toll was revised sharply upwards after police earlier said the fire, which erupted late Tuesday, had killed nine workers.
Some shouting and sobbing relatives of trapped workers, desperate to get inside the building, scuffled with police during the night, an AFP photographer said.
Rescuers used arc lights to work through the night. A steady stream of bodies were stretchered out, covered by white sheets.
Abdus Salam, a doctor at Karachi’s Civil Hospital, said 10 women were among the dead garment workers.
“The bodies are badly charred,” Salam told AFP, adding that at least 65 other workers had suffered broken bones after jumping out of windows to escape the fire.
Firefighters on crane lifts reached through the gutted building’s windows to rescue some trapped survivors, who were taken to local hospitals suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
The blaze was still smouldering early on Wednesday.
Mohammad Saleem, 32, who broke a leg after jumping out of the second floor, said he and his colleagues were hard at work late on Tuesday when flames suddenly reached their section.
“It was terrible, suddenly the entire floor filled with fire and smoke and the heat was so intense that we rushed towards the windows, broke its steel grille and glass and jumped out,” Saleem told AFP in hospital.
“I fell on the ground and it was extremely painful, I saw many people jumping out of windows and crying in pain for help,” he said.
Officials said the cause of the Karachi fire was not yet known but Rauf Siddiqui, the industry minister for Sindh province, said the factory owner was under investigation for negligence.
“We have ordered an inquiry into how the fire erupted and why proper emergency exits were not provided at the factory so that the workers could escape,” Siddiqui said.
According to DawnNews, Interior Minister Rehman Malik directed IG Sindh to investigate the incident and include the name of factory’s owner in the Exit Control List (ECL).
Earlier on Tuesday, at least 21 people were killed at a shoe factory in Lahore.
The fires could raise fresh questions about Pakistan’s industrial safety.
Critics say the government is too corrupt and ineffective to tackle an array of problems, from struggling industries to suicide bombings in the South Asian nation.
owner totally failed regarding implementation of health ,safety and envormental plolicies,half of bodies are childrens(child labour issues),
You’re just making that up. Why are you spreading rumours about this incident? Does such behaviour make you feel proud of yourself?
Sigh! this intolerable for any state and needs to be dealt with with an iron hand.
This is sheer negligence on the part of Labour department and Fire Department who only for meager amount of 5000 rupees give certificate of clearance to such factories, where there no proper exits ways to be used in case of emergency
Should the concened LABOUR Department’s INSPECTOR & relevent staff be included in the Investigation, some one is due for accountablity
I request that it is time to start an online campaign via facebook or soem other site for Safety meaures asking all concerned to Introduce proper safety measures and punishment for failure.
Industry minister should be put to task.
it is destructive for the karachi again
ALLAH help karachi
one can flout with any regulations because corruption is so rife. Human life has no value in our society where making money by every means and at every cost is most over riding purpose.
A very sad day for Pakistan with fires in two cities claiming so many lives. This is the cost the country is paying for cheap products for other countries and filling the pockets of corrupt businessmen and government officials.
who why where what…basics of reporting. Where in Karachi was this factory?
Shocking- Owners of Factory and General Manager should be arrested…
Who owns it, are they a Pakistan company ?
Now Mr. Rehman Malik is trying to be smart enough to tell the world that his heavenly-gifted government is “really concerned” about the labor class of Pakistan. Now the factory owner (if not politically linked) will be the only scapegoat. And Mr. Malik’s government will have no time to answer the nation about the implementation of the building safety codes, architectural requirements, labor laws, workers rights ans so on. I want to congratulate the government in charge (of “Eliminating the Poor” round) for their unexpected success of wiping out another (almost) 100 starving humans (though not considered humans by the rulers) with the indirect effort of their government. Let’s see how they “Sharifs” for being responsible for the incident as it will require their extreme mastery for the incident has taken place in Karachi , not Punjab.
I only hope this will wake up the people who matter to realize their responsibilities and ensure 100% existence of industrial safety measures in all industrial units.
Life is priceless but compensation to the next of kins can help mitigate their sufferings. Notwithstanding any other punishment inflicted on the owner of the factory, who had all along been reaping profit from the toil of these dead workers, should be forced to pay an handsome compensation.
May Allah give courage to the near and dear ones of the dead and injured to bear the loss and deprivation of their bread-earner.
Today is the black day in the history of Pakistan. Shame on us that even we could not provide safe work environment for our industrail workers. Where are the dozens of Government agencies, whose sole job is to enforece the laws promulgated for safety. They were either silenced by bribes or perhaps the might and power of industriast is so awesome that they prefer to keep quiet. Over the years in the name of facilitation and business friendly environment we have done away with the regime of safety inspections and the result is such devastation and loss of human life both at Karachi and Lahore. Please wake up concerned agencies, department of industries, and other regulators and undertake the safety audit of all the industrial units.
“Critics say the government is too corrupt and ineffective to tackle an array of problems, from struggling industries to suicide bombings in the South Asian nation.”
You have hit the nail on the head.
It is a heart burning news, the case should be invetigated, was the factory equipped with healthy fire fighting system ? if not the owners of the factory should held responsible for the sad incident. The rest of the factories in the area should be verified what they have arrangements to coup such accidents, the fire skid should make compulsary to all the factories in favor of the safety of workers, proper exits to escape were seems to be missing in this ill fated factory,Let us paray Allah for the forgivenness of victims and to grant SABAR to the survivers behind.
Dear Fiyaz we dont have such teams or departments who do such verifications and even if we have got they will pass on by taking money under the table.. we need to clean up the mess and make a proper standard which should be followed.
May Allah rest their souls in peace. Its really terrible that most of the building in Pak dont have any emergency exit even in big business set up. There is a need to fulfil social responsibility on part of the businesses and govt.
Government is is responsible for 73 dead due to poor performance and we the people of Pakistan deserve this because we have no feeling for other living like robots with no feelings “appna dard tu kutta bhe mahsoos karta hai, Insan woh hai jo dosray insan ka dard mahsoos kar sakay”
There are no disaster recovery measures implemented across industries in Pakistan. Industries Minister has ordered an enquiry but can he explain why he allowed conversion of a factory into a school in SITE area a potential disaster.
Two fire accidents one day killing 94 people due to irresponsible greedy owners who never bothered about safety norms. Horrible
Very sad incident..
My Heart go out to victims and victims family…….very sad……..
ashraf mirza (USA)
Rehman Malik and his statements.
Yet another event which displays the inefficiencies of simple thing as building and fire codes, which should be adequately in place and when so many people will work there the owners responsibility. All the rules are in place but the enforcers use this for private gain. For sure once the investigation is done we will find lack of fire doors, fire escapes, fire extinguishers etc. which are mandatory. How rich has the owner or the enforcer become from shunning there responsibilities. Why has Pakistan become like this? Where is our honour to duty and pride?
Let pray for the families of this tragic accident and that’s all we can do. Nothing is expected from the government who failed thousand of times. Only God can help me.
Sorry to hear this sad News.
Emergency Exit Stairs must be provided. Alarms must be provided. Some form of fire suppression mechanism must be provided. the qualityshoes and the quality garments you provide the world does not merit the death of a heartful quality worker. Building Architectures need to be taken into account.
How many more have to perish before the Nation will wake up to reform itself.
Dear keep hoping son, it take a another millineium
v sad….all responsible departments are invovled in corrupt practices, no one heeds such tragic incidents. These in vain attempts and all temporary arrangments are to evade their henious actions.
We will never wake up cos we are not one nation.