This Saturday, November 25, a fire destroyed a shopping center in the Pakistani city of Karachi, in the southwest of the country. The incident claimed the lives of at least 10 people and left another 22 injured. It is not the first time that an incident of this type has been recorded in the area, which alerts the local community to the lack of fire prevention in buildings.
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In the southwestern Pakistani city of Karachi, a fire swept through a shopping mall, killing at least 10 people and wounding 22 others, according to police and local officials.
The so-called RJ Mall, where the explosion occurred, is located in a commercial skyscraper in which several call centers and software companies also operate. After learning of the fire, the fire department deployed eight trucks to the scene at 6:30 local time. According to Fire Chief Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan, the fourth floor of the building was the worst affected.
For his part, the mayor of Karachi, Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, assured in his X account that the fire had been extinguished and that a cooling process was already being carried out in the affected areas.
Fire had been extinguished & cooling process is going on. I can so far confirm 10 casualties & 22 persons have been injured https://t.co/x3I873U7fG
— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) November 25, 2023
In addition, the local president stated that of the 22 injured, five are in critical condition. “We are doing everything possible to do everything necessary to save their lives and provide them with the necessary treatment to save their lives,” said Siddiqui, who was at the scene.
The causes of the fire remain under investigation.
Fires: a constant in the area
Karachi is the capital of Sindh, a southern Pakistani province where such incidents are common. In April of this year, a fire spread through a clothing factory, killing four firefighters.
In August 2021, another fire devastated a chemical factory in the same city, killing at least 10 people. However, it is not the deadliest incident. In 2012, 260 individuals died after being trapped inside the facility of another clothing manufacturing company.
Faced with repeated accidents of this type, earlier this week city planners and engineers said they were certain that the majority of structures in Karachi – residential, commercial and industrial – do not have fire prevention and extinguishing systems, as Dawn (Pakistan’s largest English-speaking media) reported.
According to the Dawn report, officials “agreed that it was ‘criminal negligence’ on the part of regulatory bodies like the Sindh Building Control Authority that put the lives of millions of people in the metropolis at risk.”
With AP and Reuters
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