Fire ravaged a textile-factory complex in the commercial hub of Karachi early Wednesday, killing almost 300 workers trapped behind locked doors and raising questions about the woeful lack of regulation in a vital sector of Pakistan’s faltering economy.
It was Pakistan’s worst industrial accident on record, officials said, and it came just hours after another fire, at a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore, had killed at least 25.
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A Pakistani fireman tries to extinguish a factory fire on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 in Lahore, Pakistan. A fire that broke out in a factory in eastern Pakistan on Tuesday after sparks from a generator hit chemicals used to make shoes killed dozens of people, a Pakistani police officer said. The Associated Press[h=4]video[/h]Video: Pakistan factory fire kills more than 100
Flames and acrid smoke swept quickly through the cramped textile factory in Baldia Town, a northwestern industrial suburb, creating panic among the hundreds of poorly paid workers who had been making undergarments and plastic tools.
They had few options of escape – every exit but one had been locked, officials said, and the windows were mostly barred. In desperation, some flung themselves from the top floors of the four-storey building, suffering serious injuries or worse, witnesses said. But many others failed to make it that far, trapped by an inferno that advanced mercilessly through a building that officials later described as a death trap.
Rescue workers said most of the victims died of smoke inhalation and many of the survivors sustained third-degree burns. As firefighters advanced into the wreckage during the day, battling flames, they found dozens of bodies clumped together on the lower floors.
One survivor, Muhammad Aslam, said he heard two loud blasts before the factory filled first with smoke, then with the desperate screams of his fellow workers.
“Only one entrance was open. All the others were closed,” he said at a hospital, describing scenes of panic and chaos.
Mr. Aslam, who was being treated for a broken leg, said he saved himself by leaping from a third-floor window.
Hundreds of anguished relatives gathered at the site, many of them sobbing and shouting as they desperately sought news. Some impeded the rescue operation, and baton-wielding police officers tried to disperse the crowd but failed.
The death toll rose quickly. By evening, the Karachi commissioner, Roshan Ali Sheikh, said 289 people had died, most of them men. The provincial health minister, Saghir Ahmad, put the toll at 248, which he said was the number of bodies accounted for at major hospitals. In any event, it was expected to rise further.
In the shoe-factory fire in Lahore, 25 people were reported dead and dozens wounded. Officials said that blaze had been set off by a generator that caught fire and ignited chemicals stored nearby in the factory, illegally located in a residential neighbourhood.
On Wednesday evening, police raided the home of the owner of the Karachi factory, Abdul Aziz, who appeared to have gone into hiding. According to an online business information service, his company, Ali Enterprises, manufactured denim, knitted garments and hosiery and had capital of between $10-million and $50-million.
His nephew, Shahid Bhaila, who was the chief executive officer of the company, was also being sought for questioning. Police said both men had been placed on the Exit Control List, barring them from leaving the country.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the most powerful political party in Karachi, announced three days of mourning. The city electricity company announced it would cancel all outstanding bills for the families of those affected, as a goodwill gesture.
The cause of the fire remained a mystery. GeoNews, the largest news channel, speculated it had been started by extortionists, reporting that Mr. Aziz had previously faced a demand for a shakedown payment of more than $100,000, which he refused.
But others said an electrical fire was more likely. Wali Muhammad, a former electrical inspector, said most fire accidents are caused by short-circuits in electrical equipment. But since 2003, he said, inspectors had been forbidden by law from visiting factories in Karachi and Punjab; it was not immediately clear why.
“This is criminal negligence,” he told Geo News, referring to the ban.
The other mystery surrounded the locked factory doors. Some survivors said the exits had been shuttered to prevent employees from slipping out of work early; others said it was the consequence of a recent break-in at the factory.
A majority of the garment workers came from Orangi Town, a poor, working-class neighbourhood in Karachi. In one instance, 17 of the victims came from the same street, local media reported.
Workplace safety is constitutionally guaranteed under Pakistan’s constitution, but labour leaders say that government oversight has crumbled rapidly in recent years, in line with a general decline in governance.
It was Pakistan’s worst industrial accident on record, officials said, and it came just hours after another fire, at a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore, had killed at least 25.
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A Pakistani fireman tries to extinguish a factory fire on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 in Lahore, Pakistan. A fire that broke out in a factory in eastern Pakistan on Tuesday after sparks from a generator hit chemicals used to make shoes killed dozens of people, a Pakistani police officer said. The Associated Press[h=4]video[/h]Video: Pakistan factory fire kills more than 100Flames and acrid smoke swept quickly through the cramped textile factory in Baldia Town, a northwestern industrial suburb, creating panic among the hundreds of poorly paid workers who had been making undergarments and plastic tools.
They had few options of escape – every exit but one had been locked, officials said, and the windows were mostly barred. In desperation, some flung themselves from the top floors of the four-storey building, suffering serious injuries or worse, witnesses said. But many others failed to make it that far, trapped by an inferno that advanced mercilessly through a building that officials later described as a death trap.
Rescue workers said most of the victims died of smoke inhalation and many of the survivors sustained third-degree burns. As firefighters advanced into the wreckage during the day, battling flames, they found dozens of bodies clumped together on the lower floors.
One survivor, Muhammad Aslam, said he heard two loud blasts before the factory filled first with smoke, then with the desperate screams of his fellow workers.
“Only one entrance was open. All the others were closed,” he said at a hospital, describing scenes of panic and chaos.
Mr. Aslam, who was being treated for a broken leg, said he saved himself by leaping from a third-floor window.
Hundreds of anguished relatives gathered at the site, many of them sobbing and shouting as they desperately sought news. Some impeded the rescue operation, and baton-wielding police officers tried to disperse the crowd but failed.
The death toll rose quickly. By evening, the Karachi commissioner, Roshan Ali Sheikh, said 289 people had died, most of them men. The provincial health minister, Saghir Ahmad, put the toll at 248, which he said was the number of bodies accounted for at major hospitals. In any event, it was expected to rise further.
In the shoe-factory fire in Lahore, 25 people were reported dead and dozens wounded. Officials said that blaze had been set off by a generator that caught fire and ignited chemicals stored nearby in the factory, illegally located in a residential neighbourhood.
On Wednesday evening, police raided the home of the owner of the Karachi factory, Abdul Aziz, who appeared to have gone into hiding. According to an online business information service, his company, Ali Enterprises, manufactured denim, knitted garments and hosiery and had capital of between $10-million and $50-million.
His nephew, Shahid Bhaila, who was the chief executive officer of the company, was also being sought for questioning. Police said both men had been placed on the Exit Control List, barring them from leaving the country.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the most powerful political party in Karachi, announced three days of mourning. The city electricity company announced it would cancel all outstanding bills for the families of those affected, as a goodwill gesture.
The cause of the fire remained a mystery. GeoNews, the largest news channel, speculated it had been started by extortionists, reporting that Mr. Aziz had previously faced a demand for a shakedown payment of more than $100,000, which he refused.
But others said an electrical fire was more likely. Wali Muhammad, a former electrical inspector, said most fire accidents are caused by short-circuits in electrical equipment. But since 2003, he said, inspectors had been forbidden by law from visiting factories in Karachi and Punjab; it was not immediately clear why.
“This is criminal negligence,” he told Geo News, referring to the ban.
The other mystery surrounded the locked factory doors. Some survivors said the exits had been shuttered to prevent employees from slipping out of work early; others said it was the consequence of a recent break-in at the factory.
A majority of the garment workers came from Orangi Town, a poor, working-class neighbourhood in Karachi. In one instance, 17 of the victims came from the same street, local media reported.
Workplace safety is constitutionally guaranteed under Pakistan’s constitution, but labour leaders say that government oversight has crumbled rapidly in recent years, in line with a general decline in governance.