A minor fire broke out at Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab’s office in the historic Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) building on Tuesday, with no casualties reported.
South Deputy Inspector General Asad Raza told Dawn that the incident was a “minor fire”.
Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassaanul Haseeb Khan said fire tenders were dispatched to the site and brought the blaze under control.
He said no one was injured and only the outer unit of an air conditioner was damaged. The fire was believed to have been caused by a short circuit, he added.
The incident comes amid a series of fires reported in Karachi in recent months, raising concerns over fire safety, emergency preparedness and enforcement of safety regulations. A fire also broke out at a factory in the Karachi Export Processing Zone near Landhi on Monday, leaving at least three people with minor injuries from smoke inhalation.
The blaze severely damaged the three-storey factory and affected nearby industrial units.
Earlier this year, a major fire at Gul Plaza shopping centre killed at least 73 people and destroyed more than 1,100 shops. The blaze took nearly two days to extinguish.
In February, a fire at a plastic factory in Landhi’s Export Processing Zone spread to several nearby factories and took around 13 hours to bring under control.
Days later, a blaze at a high-rise building near Baloch Colony led to the evacuation of around 150 people. Another fire was subsequently reported at a chemical factory in the SITE Industrial Area.
In March, a fire at the Zamzama branch of Imtiaz Superstore was brought under control after several hours of firefighting.
In June, hundreds of people were evacuated after a fire broke out in a cold-storage facility at a department store inside a shopping mall on Rashid Minhas Road in Federal B Area.
Frequent fires in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan have been attributed to factors including faulty wiring, inadequate fire-safety arrangements, poor infrastructure and weak enforcement of safety regulations. Many buildings lack adequate emergency exits, alarms and evacuation procedures.
