Six firefighters injured in Karachi's SITE area fire incident

KARACHI: Six firefighters were injured as the fire brigade attempted to douse a blaze that erupted in a foam-manufacturing factory in Karachi's SITE Area on Thursday morning. 

According to residents of the area, the fire initially broke out at 8am. The fire brigade had completely doused it before it erupted again later in the day. 

Nearly fifty per cent of the building was razed to the ground by the inferno, as 17 fire tenders, a snorkel, and a water bowser remained engaged in efforts to douse the blaze. 

Chief Fire Officer Wajahat Ahmed, in an exclusive conversation with Geo News, said the fire had been contained from spreading further and efforts were under way to completely contain it. "The affected factory's surrounding areas are also being secured," he said. 

However, the chief fire officer complained that the factory's administration was unwilling to cooperate with the fire brigade. Ahmed further said the firefighting operation was facing hurdles because his department had not been provided with foam used to extinguish fire.   

Earlier this year in May, a one-year-old was burnt to death after a fire sparked in an unregulated settlement in Karachi's Gulshan-e-Iqbal vicinity.

Six fire trucks were able to contain the fire which was set due to a cylinder explosion, however, the blaze left affected more than 200 shacks near a railway track in Block 13C of Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

In a notable incident in April, a blaze raged in the property room of the City Courts Complex for approximately four hours. It was contained after fire brigade vehicles from all around the city were called on an emergency basis. 

Multiple explosions had also been heard in the court's evidence room, which usually houses items — including explosives — recovered from arrested suspects, as the fire had spread outwards, prompting a call to the bomb disposal squad.