PESHAWAR: A fire ripped through the camp of a Chinese company managing the construction of a remote hydropower dam in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said.
Police said Tuesday’s pre-dawn blaze ruined a warehouse complex for the Dasu hydropower project in the Kohistan district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Islamabad.
“It was a huge fire,” a Rescue 1122 official at the site told AFP. “Initially, the flames were very high and we had to call for fire brigade vehicles from two other districts.
“It was quite a big storehouse, and apart from oil drums, stationery and machinery were also stockpiled there. That’s all been destroyed in the fire,” he added.
In 2017, Pakistan’s water ministry awarded the construction contract for the Dasu dam to the China Gezhouba Group Company.
The camp housed Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanics, but both police and Rescue 1122 said none were injured or killed.
One police official said an electrical fault was the suspected cause of the fire.