A Fire at the RJ Mall on Rashid Minhas Road in Karachi on Saturday resulted in ten fatalities and twenty-two injuries, according to the mayor of Karachi.
“I can so far confirm 10 casualties and 22 persons have been injured,” stated Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab in a tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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
Nine bodies have been taken to hospitals, with eight at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and one at Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), according to police surgeon Summaiya Syed, who spoke with Dawn.com earlier. One was also sent to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, according to Wahab.
She went on to say that an 18-year-old was being admitted to CHK at the moment.
Thirty more people, including the injured, were recovered, according to District East Deputy Commissioner (DC) Altaf Shaikh, who was directly overseeing the rescue operation.
The DC also mentioned that the building’s fourth floor had been removed, and work was currently underway to clear the fifth floor. He stated that when the rescue effort was over, a thorough investigation will determine the precise cause of the fire.
According to Sharea Faisal Station House Officer (SHO) Raja Tariq Mehmood, who spoke with Dawn.com, the structure was a high-rise commercial structure that contained software houses, call centers, and retail stores.
According to a spokeswoman for Fire & Rescue, they were notified of the issue at 6:30 am and dispatched eight fire tenders, two snorkels, and two bowsers.
The senior superintendent of police in District East has received orders from Sindh Inspector General (IG) Riffat Mukhtar to take all necessary measures to free people who are stranded inside the structure. Additionally, he gave the order to clear the road so that fire departments could easily get there.
After taking notice of the event, Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (rtd) Maqbool Baqar issued orders directing that the injured receive medical attention right away.
He conveyed his sorrow at the deaths of “six people” and gave the city commissioner instructions on how to properly free the stranded individuals. According to the chief minister, “the government was responsible for the lives and belongings of people.”
Wahab also expressed his sympathy for the occurrence. The mayor stated in a statement that fire department personnel had successfully rescued numerous individuals and emphasized that the structure lacked an emergency escape.
He declared that the issue would be the subject of a “full investigation.”
The city commissioner has been asked to provide a report on the incident, according to Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori.
راشد منہاس روڈ پر عمارت میں آتشزدگی کے نتیجہ میں قیمتی جانوں کے ضیاع پر افسوس ہے، کمشنر کراچی سے حادثہ کی رپورٹ طلب کی ہے،عمارت میں پھنسے ہوئے افراد کو جلد از جلد ریسکیو کرنے اور زخمیوں کو علاج معالجہ کی بہترین سہولیات فراہم کرنے کی ہدایت بھی کی ہے
— Kamran Tessori (@KamranTessoriPk) November 25, 2023
Around 90% of Karachi’s residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, according to city planners and engineers earlier this week, were undoubtedly devoid of firefighting and preventive equipment.
They concurred that the lives of millions of people in the city were at danger due to “criminal negligence” on the part of regulatory organizations like the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA)
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