Over the years Karachi has suffered various waves that have threatened the population. There have been waves of terrorism, collection of extortion and other deadly activities under which those living in this metropolitan city have suffered.
Now the city is undergoing another wave, and this time it is a wave of fires mostly in the business and commercial areas of the city such as garment factories, shopping centers and other such areas visited by the population of this hustling and bustling city.
Every now and then there are news of some factory gutted in either the export processing zone or in other industrial area of the city. Fires are also breaking out in shopping plazas such as the latest fire in the famous Gul Plaza, which has so far a confirmed death toll of more than seventy people and the number keeps growing.
The surprising thing is that even though all fires are the result of more or less the same indifference to safety hazards in the affected buildings no steps are being taken to remove these weaknesses at any level.
We all know that many lives could be saved if Gul Plaza had proper fire exits, emergency fire response system and volunteer fire-fighting force consisting of shopkeepers themselves and trained by the local fire department.
None of the buildings struck by fire in the last few years had any of this and thus when the fire started there was sheer panic and no organized effort to limit the fire and save lives.
Surprising thing is that this shopping center was not selling or storing any chemicals but the fire had the same potential as if there were chemicals or at least highly flammable material that in a fire would go on a scale from 0 to 10 in no time. This only happens with highly flammable chemical. Working in a chemical company I had attended a safety course in which the trainer explained to us the lethal capabilities of stored chemical. He drew a chart in which once a fire started it would behave according to the lethal degree of the chemical. Some chemical fire would in terms of catching fire go from one to ten in few minutes and even seconds so they have to be stored with extra care.
The general impression and statement of shop keepers indicate that there were no chemicals stored but the rapid spreading of the fire does indicate storage of some very combustible material without accompanying safety steps. This seems to be the practice in all shopping centers big and small and even though they get a rude awakening every now and then in the form of such tragedies as the Gul Plaza they unfortunately do not learn a lesson.
Leading up to the destructive fire in Gul Plaza there were several other fires like the Karachi Port fire at West Wharf, the towel factory at FB area Industrial Zone, a factory in New Karachi, fires at the Karachi export processing zone and Saddar Cooperative Market. So many fires happening on a regular basis but unfortunately no one took these warning signs and none of the shopping centers in the city beefed up their firefighting capabilities.
The Gul Plaza fire brought rushing to my mind the famous Bohri Bazaar fires. There have been two in this traditional market in the heart of Karachi.
The first fire was in 1958 and the other was in 1980. The 1958 fire is reminiscent of the Gul Plaza fire. A shopping centre full of people catches fire which spreads so rapidly that there is no chance for the shoppers to save themselves.
In the Bohri Bazzar fire it is not one shopping centre but a whole market engulfed in flames and the shoppers find no route to escape. The most horrific incident of this fire was the death of several persons in a shoe shop.
When the fire started it caught fire crackers and the sound of the fire crackers exploding gave the impression to shoppers that there was some kind of attack on the market so they let the metal shutters down to wait out the attack. After a while when they realized the situation the steel shutters had heated up and expanded making it impossible to open them.
All shoppers in that shop lost their lives just as according to reports several dead bodies were recovered from one closed shop in Gul Plaza.
I wonder if the Gul Plaza fire has taught us something new. There are a lot of declarations about compensation, providing alternate space for shops gutted in the fire but alas all this will be in vain if we do not improve our fire-fighting and prevention methods that allow same tragedies to strike repeatedly in the city.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is a well-known columnist
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