At least 23 people have died as a result of a fire that tore through a shopping center in Karachi over the weekend, including a firefighter, as rescuers search for the remaining missing.
The Gul Plaza commercial building, which houses more than 1,200 stores and houses the largest fire in more than a decade, was destroyed late on Saturday at midnight at the start of the city’s biggest fire in more than a decade. More than 24 hours were needed to completely extinguish the flames.
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According to city officials, debris and poor ventilation are severely preventing rescue efforts because some of the building’s components have collapsed and deteriorated.
Under the supervision of the city’s commissioner, a formal investigation into the fire was announced by Mayor Murtaza Wahab.
Wahab confirmed to a private news channel on Monday night that more than 60 people are still missing and that the search operation is being carried out once the firefighting operation is over. He said one of the difficulties that emergency personnel face is that “fire flares up once more during the cooling process.”
Wahab added that each family that lost a loved one in the tragedy will receive 10 million rupees ($35, 000) from the government of Sindh, the province where Karachi is located.
The Gul Plaza fire, which is the latest in a line of major incidents in Karachi, the country’s center for business and has a population of nearly 25 million, is the most recent.
We examine what is known about the Gul Plaza incident, why the rescue efforts have been so difficult, and what has led to Karachi’s persistent fire safety issues.
At Gul Plaza, what transpired?
Gul Plaza, a well-known business center, is situated along one of Karachi’s most famous thoroughfares, MA Jinnah Road, in the city’s historic Saddar neighborhood. The stores sell jewelry, household goods, carpets, bags, crockery, and other items.
The building was packed on Saturday night during the wedding season, according to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, adding that this was a contributing factor to the high death toll.
Officials have not yet determined the cause of the fire’s eruption after more than 72 hours. According to police, the fire may have been caused by a short circuit the night of the incident.
No definitive can be said about this at this time, according to Sindh Police Inspector General Javed Alam Odho, who claimed the fire was brought on by a circuit breaker.
A thorough investigation is required, according to Namra Khalid, an urban researcher based in Karachi.
“I believe the main issue should be about what caused the fire to grow at such a rapid rate,” Khalid told Al Jazeera. What structural, systemic failures allowed it to spread to such a large scale, and why do these failures allow for repeat fires in the city on an unfathomable scale?
Why did the rescue efforts take so long?
Due to the size of the building and the extent of the damage, according to rescue officials, who are still conducting the operation to find those who are still missing.
According to local media, a significant portion of the structure has collapsed, and what remains may need to be destroyed as a result of severe structural damage.
Access to the site was a significant challenge on the night of the fire, according to Hassan ul-Haseeb, a spokesperson for the provincial rescue organization Rescue 1122.
The road was narrow, he said, and there were many people there just to watch the spectacle, which caused the entire road to be blocked and difficult for water tankers to get there, he claimed.
Despite constant efforts by firefighters, Ul-Haseeb added that the materials contained in the plaza, including large amounts of plastic, continued to spread the fire, which continued to spread throughout the facility.
He claimed that using the building’s 13 entry and exit points, people on the ground floor, were able to leave. However, many of those who were confined to the upper floors couldn’t escape, leading to numerous fatalities.
A well-known tragedy
Since the 2012 Baldia factory fire, which claimed more than 250 lives, the Gul Plaza fire has been dubbed Karachi’s largest fire.
The Ali Enterprises factory, a garment manufacturing facility, in Karachi’s Baldia town area, started in the afternoon of September 11, 2012, and raged for more than a day. The factory was filled with combustible materials, including piles of clothes and chemicals, according to the factory’s owners at the time.
A Pakistani court determined that the Baldia Inferno was an accident not an arson eight years later. Two men who were members of the political party’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which was at the time in power in the city, were sentenced to death by the court.
Fires have raged throughout Karachi in recent years.
According to city planners and engineers, about 70% of the city’s residential, commercial, and industrial buildings lack adequate fire safety systems.
In both 2023 and 2024, Karachi recorded more than 2, 500 fires.
Eight people died in a warehouse’s fire that resulted in its grounding in August. No injuries were reported in June, but a new shopping mall was destroyed and hundreds of stores wererazed.
The repeated incidents, according to Muhammad Toheed, a director of the research organization Karachi Urban Lab and an urban planner, are an indication of long-standing shortcomings in governance.
The government has no justifications, he told Al Jazeera, and it is a clear and straightforward failure of governance because the fire brigade and other related rescue work fall under its purview.
Practically none of these are present, he continued, adding that building codes, safety measures, routine inspections, the presence of fire extinguishers, and necessary training drills.
Chronic failures
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, which regulates the fire brigade, claims that the city’s population, which is more than 20 million, has just 35 fire stations. Only 57 fire trucks and six ladder trucks are present in Karachi, according to Rescue 1122’s ul-Haseeb.
The urban researcher Toheed claimed to have frequently visited Gul Plaza and that it had been compared to many other city structures with multiple entry and exit points.
“We have had so many casualties in this building, despite having fire extinguishers, reasonably sized stairs where people can move, and plenty of exit points.” The rest of Karachi is a ticking time bomb, he warned, if we use Gul Plaza as a benchmark.
Khalid agreed, claiming that informal fixes and ongoing failures are a burden on the city.
She said, “We don’t have the emergency response mechanism, and the lack of regulation, inspection, and enforcement has created an environment where safety is optional and accountability is absent.”
Toheed added that city authorities must address the lack of training and capacity among rescue personnel urgently.
“We have to start from scratch. According to him, it is crucial to learn what training our rescue personnel have because this is a very special skill, he said, referring to some ground reports from the Gul Plaza rescue efforts that suggested there were shortcomings.
Khalid expressed hope that something would change as a result of the Gul Plaza fire.
Source: Aljazeera
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