LAHORE, February 24 (Online): A shopkeeper died and 11 people suffered burn injuries as fire broke out in two shopping plazas in Ichhra on Wednesday, gutting at least 450 shops and merchandise worth millions of rupees.
The deceased was identified as Muhammad Rashid. All the injured were hospitalised and the condition of three of them was stated to be critical at the time of our going to press. The fire broke out in the three-storeyed Bhandara Centre and four-storeyed Khawaja Centre at 5.30pm reportedly due to short-circuit in a transformer outside the Bhandara Centre. At least 450 shops in the Bhandara Centre and the Khawaja Centre were reduced to ashes and a residential building was partially damaged.
In the beginning a number of makeshift shops caught fire due to sparking from the transformer. Later, the blaze engulfed the Bhandara Centre and the other adjoining shopping centres. "A stray kite attached with metallic wire landed on the transformer. Electric wires caught fire after a spark from the transformer," witnesses told The News.
The Bhandara Centre soon turned into an inferno as the gas pipeline of a sweets shop on the ground floor caught fire due to the flames dropping from the electric wires. The flames first engulfed the ground floor and then spread to the basement and other floors of the Bhandara Centre.
Then the rising flames engulfed the top floor of the adjoining Khawaja Centre. Muhammad Asghar, the owner of Khawaja Centre, accused that the fire brigade arrived after two hours of the accident being reported. Four persons, including Yousaf, Boota and Rehman, in the Khawaja Centre were unaccounted for, he said.
Witnesses said people had been trapped inside the buildings by the flames blocking all exits and the only safe places remained balconies. Fire-fighters extinguished the fire around 11.40pm at the two shopping centres. Officials said the blaze knocked out power to most of the area for a couple of hours.
People were trapped on the upper floors of the two buildings. The flames reduced to ashes whatever came in its way in the Bhandara Centre. However, all people in the building were evacuated, except the injured ones. The damage to each of the gutted shop was calculated at millions of rupees, a fire fighter said.
A witness said people jumped out of windows and from balconies of the Bhandara building as every part of it caught fire. The fire created panic among the local traders as well as the shoppers who started running to save their lives. The news of fire at the shopping plazas spread within no time and people from various parts of the city rushed to the spot.
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