KARACHI - Fire fighters failed to extinguish a third-degree fire, which broke out at a textile mill located in the FB Industrial Area. They continued to make efforts to extinguish the fire for more than 24 hours.

The fire broke out at around 8pm on Thursday at the Lucky Textile Mills, located near the Lucky One Mall on main Rashid Minhas Road within the limits of Federal B Industrial Area Police Station, where garments are kept.

The fire also made the electricity shut down in the nearby residential locality Block 21, FB Area. The constant power cut off in the locality from Thursday evening made the residents’ life miserable and they demanded shifting the industrial area away from the residential area. KE officials said that it would be impossible to restore electricity to the locality till completion of the fire-fighting operation.

Fire brigade officials say no time frame could be given for complete control over the situation. “It was a third-degree fire,” says Tehseen Siddiqui, chief fire officer at the Karachi Municipal Corporation. “We were able to control the blazes by hectic efforts of hours but the mill’s administration brought some fire fighters from the private firm who broke the wall to douse the fire but unfortunately it provided oxygen and the fire flared up again,” he said.  Fire tenders from the entire city, including Pakistan Navy, were participating in the fire extinguish operation. Extra contingents of law enforcers were also present at the site to avoid any untoward incident.

Rescue teams and at least 15 fire tenders of fire brigade and three fire tenders of Pakistan Navy were busy dousing the fire that had turned goods worth millions of rupees into ashes. No loss of life was reported in the incident as there was no worker at the industrial unit at the time of the incident. It is worth mentioning here that there were number of other factories and shopping mall in the surrounding of the gutted mill and fire fighters continue to complete their operation before the fire spreads out and torches nearby factories.

Federal B Industrial Area SHO Sajid Javed said that no human loss was reported in the fire while the actual cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained, adding that no criminal element was found during initial inquiry as what the authorities concerned has currently focus in extinguishing the fire.