Islamabad - The preliminary inquiry report has suggested that electrical short circuit in the illegally installed electrical wiring inside the stalls might have been one of the causes of fire at Itwaar bazaar in sector H-9 on July 18.

According to the report obtained by The Nation, clothes, garments, batteries and generators with fuel might have served as combustible which helped fire spread to the nearby stalls and shops. 108 stalls were completely damaged in the fire, according to the report. “In the light of evidence available on site, it appears that the fire erupted in Lunda bazaar due to electrical short circuit of illegally installed electrical wiring inside the stalls, and generators etc. The fire then spread through the combustible material present in the stalls and spread to the other stalls. However, nothing concrete could be said until findings of the technical report which may provide, if any, substantial evidence with regard to any possibility of arson activity,” the report suggested.   On July 18, 2018 at about 12:57pm, a huge fire engulfed ‘E’ and ‘F’ sections of the bazaar. An inquiry committee was constituted the same day to investigate and determine the cause of the fire incident. Director (Security), CDA headed the inquiry while Director DMA MCI, DD USAR E&DM and AD Fire Operations E&DM were members of the committee. The committee will have to affix responsibility, list the stalls/shops that have been destroyed in the incident and recommend how to prevent such incidents in future.  The H-9 weekly bazaar consists of stalls, shops, parking area. The place of the incident, H-9 has Metro Station Bus Depot in the West, plants nursery in the South, Kashmir Highway in the North and 9th Avenue at its East side. The H-9 Bazaar is constructed on 15 acres of land. The stalls are iron sheds. The bazaar is divided into 8 sections/blocks. Block ‘A’ houses stalls of vegetable; Block ‘B’ stalls of fruit, shoes and crockery; Block ‘C’ houses garments stalls; Block ‘D’ houses general stores, shops, cloths stalls; Block ‘E’ Lunda, curtains; Block ‘F’ carpets, curtains etc; Block ‘G’ chicken, fish shops and Block ‘H’ Lunda shoes and miscellaneous.