Gul Plaza fire probe: Market official laments 'lethargic' rescue response

KARACHI: President Gul Plaza Association submitted reply to the questionnaire of the judicial commission inquiring into the deadly fire in the shopping mall in January that claimed several lives.

Association President Tanveer Pasta hold the ‘lethargic response’ of rescue agencies responsible for the losses of life in the inferno. “They didn’t have required equipment, masks and other safety gear otherwise more lives could have been saved,” he said. “They could not enter in the premises to retrieve the people trapped in the building,” he further said.

“The first fire tender reached at 10:55 PM, two more fire engines reached at 11:00 PM until then the fire has engulfed on the ground floor,” he said.

“The firefighters didn’t have foam or chemical to contain the fire,” market official said. Market management itself arranged private water tankers on the self help basis,” he claimed. “The water corporation’s tankers were only available after Fajar when the fire had intensified,” he said.

He said some stranded people were taken out on self-help basis after getting information about their location.

He said owing to power shutdown fire emergency could not be announced, the market management and shopkeepers asked people to get out of the premises.

“There were around 3,500 people in Gul Plaza at the time and most of them were taken out of the building,” he said.

He also claimed that all 16 exits were opened and thousands of people get out of the premises with these exit points. “A shutter at 2nd floor was found closed during the inspection but it was not locked. It might have closed owing to spring fault likely caused by the intensity of fire”, Tanveer Pasta said.

He said there were artificial flowers, toys, garments, sprays and other combustible material in the market.

“There were seven diesel generators at the rooftop of Gul Plaza and five of them were functional,” he said.

Market’s president said that out of 72 people died in the fire, 51 were the people of the market.

The judicial commission’s sources have said that the President Gul Plaza Association didn’t provide title of any shop, neither any record about the legal status of shops was provided.

“No details about legal position of the recovery of maintenance in the market have been made available,” sources said.

Commission’s sources have said that the bylaws of the unregistered body were also not provided.

On Saturday night, January 17, a massive fire broke out at Gul Plaza on M.A. Jinnah Road, engulfing the commercial building and trapping dozens inside. The blaze raged for over 32 hours before being brought under control, exposing weaknesses of the Karachi’s emergency response system.