KARACHI: Fire broke out in a plastic factory in Labour Square area of SITE Sunday morning.
No labourers were present inside the factory as it was a day off. Thus no injuries or loss of life has been reported.
Police and Rangers personnel cordoned off the site of the incident to prevent passersby from coming close to the factory.
According to police and fire brigade personnel, firefighters are trying to contain the fire from spreading. A grid station of K-Electric and a CNG station are also situated close to the factory. The gas station has been evacuated.
Initially, five fire brigades were sent to the site but were not sufficient to douse the inferno, which is why more vehicles have been dispatched, including water tankers.
“The inferno could be put out in two hours but they are bringing only one vehicle (fire tender) in the street at a time,” the factory owner told Geo News. “Though more fire tenders can be parked in as it is a 60-feet broad street.”
While talking to Geo News, a fire officer said six to seven fire tenders and two bowsers were being used to douse the fire. “All the available vehicles have been put to use,” he said, adding that they also ran out of foam soon into the firefighting operation.
Fire officials have requested all city departments to send their fire tenders to the site to aid dousing efforts, following which vehicles were sent from the water board, Pakistan Navy and the Karachi Port Trust.
Mayor Waseem Akhtar also visited the site of the inferno to oversee firefighting operations.
“I have not come here [to play] politics,” he said while talking to the media. “But I would [like to] request the Sindh government to make the [fire] department strong.”
Akhtar added the fire department does not have the necessary equipment to deal with such incidents.
The factory, spread over 1,500 square yards, is used to produce plastic chairs, informed officials.
In early April, fire that broke out in a residential building took 23 hours to be extinguished. The fire had erupted in the basement of a building situated in Nazimabad no.4 in the city.
It took 18 fire tenders, two bowsers and 40 hydrants to douse the fire.
