KARACHI: A man was killed while three others, including a firefighter, sustained injuries in a fire that broke out in the basement of a superstore near Jail Chowrangi on Wednesday.

Efforts to completely do­u­se the fire were still under way till late in the night.

Officials said that they received information about the fire in the basement of Chase Up at around 11.15am. Initially, fire engines from nearby Civic Centre were sent, but seeing the gravity of the situation, more fire engines were called.

The store was located in the ground floor of a multi-storey residential building, located at the intersection of Shaheed-i-Millat Road and Kashmir Road, where hundreds of people lived. The building was evacuated when thick smoke engulfed it causing breathing problems for residents.

Ferozabad SHO Arshad Janjua said that an employee of the store died while three others were injured, who were taken to hospitals.

Dr Summaiya Syed, additional police surgeon of the Jinnah Postgraduate Med­ical Centre, said that a man, around 25 years of age, was brought dead to the hospital. He died of suffocation due to inhaling smoke, she added.

An Edhi Foundation spokesperson identified the three injured persons as fireman Sikander Allaudin, 50, Shabbir Ahmed, 30, and Akhtar Ali, 33.

The doctors said the condition of Akhtar Ali was serious due to suffocation.

The area SHO said the fire was controlled at around 6pm but it erupted again and rapidly spread.

A fire official also said that the fire was still out of control and around 14-15 fire engines were trying to extinguish it.

Chief Fire Officer Mubeen Ahmed told Dawn that 15 fire engines, bowsers, one snorkel, water tankers of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and Pakistan Navy’s fire engines were taking part in the firefighting efforts.

However, he said that they were facing extreme difficulties as there were no wide-open entry and exit points to the basement. “We are trying to control the fire by demolishing walls of the basement to get there.”

He said it appeared that when the multi-storey building was constructed, no thought was given to fire safety measures. He added essential goods and other material in the basement helped spread the fire.

The official said the exact cause of fire was not clear while estimation of loss would be made when the fire would be controlled.

He said they would also assess as to whether the superstore management had installed any firefighting system.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2022