At least 15 labourers killed in fire at chemical factory in Pak

At least 15 labourers were killed after a massive fire broke out in a chemical factory in Pakistan's commercial capital of Karachi on Friday, police said.

The factory, located in the populated Korangi industrial area, caught fire when around 26 workers were present in the building, Korangi SSP Shah Jehan said, adding that rescue operations were on to find the other workers.

Fire brigade officials said that the incident happened when the blaze started in a drum of chemicals used to manufacture various items and spread across the factory, Geo TV reported.

Faisal Edhi, a rescue official, said 15 bodies have been taken out from the fire site.

“It is a chemical factory and apparently the fire broke out due to some short circuit but we are assisting in locating all the workers,” he said.

Jehan said there were still some people trapped inside the building and might have died.

“We were inside the building and we had started working when the fire broke out and spread quickly. We shouted for help but no one heard us,” Shahid, a worker at the factory, was quoted as saying by Geo TV.

He said that the dead included four brothers who worked at the factory.

Two firefighters were injured while trying to put out the flames, the report said. Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab said that the fire department was alerted of the blaze at 10:09 am and departed a minute later, rejecting reports that the fire brigade arrived late to extinguish the fire.

He confirmed that the fire has been extinguished and cooling efforts were underway, citing suffocation as the cause of death of most of the victims.

Chief Fire Officer Mubeen Ahmed said that the roof of the factory was locked and there was only one way to enter the factory, making it difficult for the labourers to escape.

According to a report in The Express Tribune, fire brigade officials declared the blaze to be a third-degree fire, and given its severity, all of the city's tenders were deployed to douse the flames.

The area has been cordoned off and Rangers personnel were engaged in relief efforts with rescue teams.

Reacting to the incident, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah sought a report from the Karachi commissioner and the labour department on how the incident happened and what precautionary measures were taken, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In September 2012, a fire at a garments factory in Karachi’s Baldia Town killed over 250 workers, including women.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)