Fire engulfs Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Johar furniture market, causes severe damage

KARACHI: In a recent bizarre incident, a huge fire engulfed the furniture market on Kamran Chowrangi, Gulistan-e-Johar, causing heavy damage to the market. The fire reportedly began in nearby bushes before spreading to the furniture market, which made it impossible to control. 

According to the eyewitnesses, the fire was very intense and spread throughout several shops in the furniture market, causing the shopkeepers to rush to salvage whatever they could from their wares. Fortunately, people present in the market were safely evacuated, and nearby residential buildings were not affected by the fire.

The fire brigade responds quickly to the emergency so that seven fire brigade vehicles rush to the site dousing the flames. This took hours of effort on their part to bring this fire under control, by six vehicles from KMC and one from Rescue 1122.

The Chief Fire Officer confirmed that more than 35 shops, which mainly sell used furniture, were affected, with 50% of the merchandise completely destroyed. The cause of the fire is still unknown, and officials have not been able to give an accurate estimate of the financial losses.

This is not the first case of this nature. March last year, an inexplicable fire gutted 45 shops at the Gharibabad Furniture Market. Shopkeepers criticized the fire brigade for a belated response. 

Many merchants broke shutters to retrieve their goods. Authorities are investigating the cause and finding ways to prevent  this sort of incident in the future. The fire has raised a question over the safety and security of markets in Karachi, and authorities are working to ensure that such incidents do not happen again in the future.