{"id":103047,"date":"2026-03-05T11:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=103047"},"modified":"2026-03-05T11:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:39:31","slug":"rawalpindi-plaza-fire-burns-for-12-hours-major-safety-violations-exposed-in-saddar-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/news\/rawalpindi-plaza-fire-burns-for-12-hours-major-safety-violations-exposed-in-saddar-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Rawalpindi Plaza Fire Burns for 12 Hours, Major Safety Violations Exposed in Saddar Building"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rawalpindi Plaza Fire<\/strong> broke out on Wednesday evening in a basement warehouse of a commercial building on City Saddar Road. The blaze continued for nearly 12 hours<\/strong> before rescue teams finally brought it under control early Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

The fire started around 6:30 pm<\/strong> in the basement of the four-storey Shanghai Plaza<\/strong>, located in the busy Saddar market area of Rawalpindi. Rescue 1122 received the emergency call and immediately sent several firefighting vehicles and rescue teams to the site.<\/p>\n

Initially, firefighters managed to control flames visible outside the building. However, during cooling operations, the Rawalpindi Plaza Fire<\/strong> intensified again after rescuers discovered a warehouse inside the basement.<\/p>\n

Officials said the warehouse contained boring motors, rubber and plastic pipes, and oil<\/strong>. These materials quickly fueled the fire and made the situation more dangerous for rescue workers.<\/p>\n

Due to the emergency situation, City Saddar Road was closed for traffic<\/strong>. Chief Traffic Officer Farhan Aslam directed traffic police to divert vehicles to alternative routes to keep traffic moving.<\/p>\n

Rescue 1122 teams faced major challenges while controlling the Rawalpindi Plaza Fire<\/strong>. The basement had only one narrow passage<\/strong>, which was also closed. There was no other entry or exit point for firefighters.<\/p>\n

Officials also found that the basement lacked a proper ventilation system<\/strong>, which caused thick smoke to fill the area. This made it difficult for rescuers to direct foam and chemical water towards the flames.<\/p>\n

To control the situation, the district emergency officer Engineer Sibghatullah<\/strong> called additional rescue staff and fire vehicles. In total, around 50 firefighters and 13 fire brigade vehicles<\/strong> took part in the operation.<\/p>\n

Rescue teams eventually cut open the warehouse gate and broke parts of the roof<\/strong> to create openings. Holes were drilled at several points so firefighters could access the basement and continue the operation.<\/p>\n

Smoke extractor machines and pipes were also installed to remove smoke from the building. Meanwhile, the electricity supply to the area was disconnected<\/strong> to avoid further risks.<\/p>\n

Authorities later revealed that serious fire safety violations<\/strong> existed in the plaza. The basement had no fire alarms, smoke detectors, or emergency firefighting equipment.<\/p>\n

Officials also confirmed that the building had no proper emergency exits or ventilation system<\/strong>, which made the fire extremely difficult to control.<\/p>\n

Initially, authorities suspected a short circuit<\/strong> as the possible cause of the Rawalpindi Plaza Fire<\/strong>. However, rescue officials said the exact cause will be confirmed only after a detailed investigation.<\/p>\n

Cooling operations inside the building are still continuing as rescue teams monitor the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rawalpindi Plaza Fire broke out on Wednesday evening in a basement warehouse of a commercial building on City Saddar Road. The blaze continued for nearly 12 hours before rescue teams finally brought it under control early Thursday morning. The fire started around 6:30 pm in the basement of the four-storey Shanghai Plaza, located in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":103048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[37119,37118,37114,37117,37115,37116],"class_list":["post-103047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-pakistan-fire-incident","tag-rawalpindi-building-fire","tag-rawalpindi-plaza-fire","tag-rescue-1122-rawalpindi","tag-saddar-rawalpindi-fire","tag-shanghai-plaza-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103049,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103047\/revisions\/103049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}