LAHORE: Valuables worth billions of rupees were gutted as a massive fire broke out at a famous private shopping mall located on Gulberg Main Boulevard in the wee hours of Monday.

Rescue 1122 officials said they received a call in the wee hours of Monday that a massive fire broke out in PACE shopping mall in Gulberg which quickly engulfed the whole building, gutting valuables worth billion of rupees of traders.

Eyewitnesses said the fire was first broke out on the upper portion of the building and then in the basement which was “suspicious”.

They said that some traders also staged a protest demonstration against the plaza owner(s), accusing them of willfully putting the plaza on fire to evict the tenants.

While utterly rejecting the notion that a short circuit could be the reason behind the unfortunate incident, the protestors demanded a complete inquiry of the episode and requested the Punjab government to provide the affected traders compensation amounts.

Meanwhile, a source said that the police have arrested some people for creating hurdles for rescuers in the extinguish process.

Talking to the media during his visit to the plaza, Recue 1122 Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer said the fire was extinguished after the hectic efforts of nearly eight hours. He said more than 92 rescuers took part in the cooling process and 22 fire tenders were dispatched to the site. However, no causality was reported.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar took notice of the incident and ordered an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the fire.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022