KARACHI - A fire broke out at a 19-storey high rise commercial building on II Chundrigar Road on Saturday. It was doused by fire fighters after hectic efforts of at least 12 hours.

The fire, which erupted at the 16th floor of Saima Towers at 5am, quickly engulfed 17th, 18th and 19th floors of the building. Initially, four fire tenders with two water bowsers and a snorkel were rushed to the site followed by more of them along with water bowsers and snorkels from across the city.

“Fire fighters tried their level best,” said a fire brigade spokesperson. He said the fire had almost been extinguished while the cooling process was under way. The offices of various companies in the building were evacuated. No loss of life was reported. However, nearly half a dozen people were trapped on the rooftop of the building, which were later safely rescued by fire fighters. Though the cause of fire is yet to be ascertained, fire fighters suspected that it was caused by short-circuiting. The area police reached the site and coordinating with fire fighters.

Fire fighters said that they faced problems in extinguishing the fire due to a lack of equipment. “There were a lot of difficulties in controlling the fire.

The fire was at 16th floor, while the snorkel could reach up to 13th floor. We had to make custom arrangements to reach 16th floor,” a fire fighter explained. Though no loss of life was reported, the fire caused a loss of millions of rupees to the building owners.

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar visited the site and criticised the Sindh government for “doing nothing for institutions during the last eight years”. According to him, several buildings have been erected in the metropolis but fire equipment has not been bought. Further, he highlighted, there was no fire exit in the affected building, saying the provincial authorities must be ashamed of themselves on such a dismal state of affairs.