A 14-storey building of United Bank Limited (UBL) situated at Jinnah Avenue caught fire Thursday morning, burning down several offices into ashes. The fire broke out on the eighth-floor and later engulfed 9th and 10th floor. All the three floors of the building were rented out to Hashoo group of companies. No loss of life was reported.
The fire crews rushed to the site soon after the fire broke out and controlled the fire after four hours hectic efforts. According to the officials, the fire was erupted due to short circuiting while an inquiry has been ordered. The officials said that the fire first broke out at about 8:15am on the right corner of eighth floor of the building and engulfed other portions within minutes.
Some seven people, stuck in the building were rescued by fire crews with the help of Bronto sky lift. Huge black smoke and flame came out of the building for hours and the fighters faced difficulty to extinguish the fire. The fire fighters said that security barricades, erected at the back side of the UBL building, created difficulties in reaching out the building. It took enough time to remove the blockades with heavy machinery, which delayed the rescue operation.
According to the eyewitnesses, the fire first erupted on the right corner of eight floor of the building which started engulfing other floors as a result eighth and ninth floors were completely destroyed while the tenth floor was damaged partially. Some offices on the seventh floor were also burnt down. Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) Imtiaz Inayat Elahi told reporters that fire brigade officials reached the site within ten minutes of the incident.
Hamad Ahmed, a Fire Brigade official said that they received call at about 8:09am and the vehicles were mobilised and reached within ten minutes. He said that notice had already issued to the building in September directing the administration to take precautionary measures and it would be investigated whether the administration had taken the measures or not. However, he said, the alarm system and emergency exits were operational. He said that after controlling the fire, the building was thoroughly searched and declared that the structure of the building is intact.