The megacity currently has only nearly 1,000 trained firefighters, compared to a required number of 15,000 to 20,000.
View of the site after a fire broke out in the Gul Plaza shopping center. Photo: PPI
Located in the heart of Karachi, Gul Plaza, a three-story shopping mall where generations have found everything from imported tableware to the perfect pair of sandals, made headlines last month for all the wrong reasons.
A massive fire ravaged the mall on the night of January 17, reducing the structure, which once housed 1,200 small and large stores, to ashes and piles of smoke-blackened rubble, in addition to killing 80 people, many of them missing.
Although the fire was believed to have been started by miners at a store selling artificial flowers, the findings also suggest that the lack of functional emergency exits and the density of shoppers and stalls crammed into the building made the situation worse.
Rescue workers took at least 10 days to comb through the remains of the 70,000-square-foot complex built in the 1980s, raising questions about urban governance, fire safety and rescue capacity.
Viewing this fire – the deadliest in more than a decade – as the tip of the iceberg, city planners fear that the megacity could experience another such accident if immediate preventive measures, including strict implementation of fire safety rules and rescue capabilities, are not taken.
The country’s most populous city – home to more than 20 million people – includes hundreds of shopping malls similar to Gul Plaza, as well as residential and commercial buildings, only a few of which have proper fire safety mechanisms, leaving them vulnerable to similar disasters.
Learn more: Investigation reveals how Gul Plaza fire became death trap
A 2023 fire safety audit by the Sindh government showed that only 6% of buildings in the city’s three major malls had proper fire safety mechanism.
The report recommended that urgent action be taken to ensure fire safety in the remaining buildings, but to no avail.
“Karachi is vulnerable to such incidents simply because of a series of problems related to unplanned urbanization, densification, overcrowding and lack of treatment and rescue capacity,” said Amber Alibhai, general secretary of Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment, a non-governmental organization.
Transparency, no regularization of illegal constructions
Talk to AnadoluAlibhai observed that a growing demand for housing and non-enforcement of building and fire safety regulations have left buyers vulnerable to illegal construction, where “fire safety is not a priority”.
Lax laws on construction, she added, will subsequently make it possible to regularize these constructions. She called for transparency in all commercial and residential building approvals, and no approval of illegal construction.
Arif Hasan, a veteran architect, cited lack of planning, maintenance and monitoring, as well as non-enforcement of fire regulations, as key factors behind massive fire losses in Karachi and other major cities.
“Fires exist and can occur anywhere in the world. The problems are their frequency, the government’s rescue capacity and the scale of human losses,” Hasan said. Anadolu.
He said a holistic approach, including regular planning, maintenance and monitoring, as well as implementation of fire safety standards, including modern fire-fighting mechanism, could go a long way in mitigating the impacts of such disasters.
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“No new building should be handed over to the developer if it does not comply with all fire safety regulations, while the government must ensure that existing structures, especially high-rise buildings, comply with safety regulations,” he added.
Fire and politics
The latest incident, the worst since the 2012 Baldia factory fire that killed 289 people, also exposed shortcomings in governance, putting the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which has ruled the province since 2008, on the back foot.
Opposition parties in Karachi, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Muttahida Quami-Pakistan Movement, as well as some traders accused the authorities of failing to launch a rescue and firefighting operation on time, which could have saved several lives and contained the blaze.
The provincial government and Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab denied the accusation, but acknowledged the lack of safety standards in the metropolis.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has now issued an ultimatum to the government, private offices and high-rise buildings to implement fire safety norms.
Images circulating on social media showed government officials visiting cluttered markets and buildings in the city and persuading owners to clear illegally occupied alleys and adopt fire safety mechanism.
“Demoralized” firefighters
Last year, some 1,700 fires, mostly small-scale, were recorded in Karachi, according to official statistics.
Karachi currently has only nearly 1,000 trained firefighters, compared to the required number of 15,000 to 20,000 under international standards.
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The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has only 30 fire stations, 57 fire trucks and six ladder trucks to serve the sprawling metropolis, far fewer than global safety standards, which require one fire station for every 100,000 people.
To make matters worse, several fire trucks have been broken down for several years.
According to Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan, former fire chief, there is not even a single hydrant in the city reserved for firefighters.
The KMC has underground water tanks in several areas, but they too have been dry for years due to water shortages, Khan said. Anadolu.
“A fire truck must travel an average of six to eight miles to collect water while maneuvering on congested roads before reaching the fire department’s viewpoint,” he said. “It’s even worse during rush hour.”
According to Khan, who retired in December 2024, the city has just over 700 firefighters, many of whom lack proper protective equipment such as helmets.
So much so, he added, that firefighters have not received their risk allowances for several years. “They feel demoralized because of the current situation.”
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“I can tell you that firefighters have never been a priority for KMC officials. They don’t even bother to look into the relevant cases,” he said.
Endorsing this view, Alibhai also blamed people’s attitude towards security.
“The authorities and the general population do not take fire safety seriously,” she said. “It’s a state of mind.”
