A controversial collapse

LAHORE – The Bahria Plaza is the first plaza to have crumbled after Monday’s fire and Mochi Gate’s residents are speculating as to the cause of its collapse. Locals speaking to Pakistan Today said the plaza collapsed because of a blast. A visit to the site of the fires revealed that Mochi Gate residents claimed that a blast was heard before the building came to the ground.
They insisted that the should of the blast was heard at 8:15 am with the building collapsing within 15 minutes of the blast. Bahria Plaza worker Ali Khan said that at least 15 to 20 labourers were still trapped under the rubble. He said that his cousin had called him from beneath the remains of the fallen plaza confirming he was life and asking for help.
“It’s been five hours since his phone has switched off,” said Ali Khan. He said rescue teams are not working efficiently as nothing has been done to dig out the trapped individuals. He said that the rescue team came on the spot after the building had hit the ground. He claimed Rescue 1122 staff were not present when the building collapsed at 8:30.
Fell too early: Still more uncertain are affectees of the fire. Ali Qadri, owner of Qadri Center adjacent to Bahria Plaza, says, “Bahria Plaza did not fall due to the fire. The building fell due to an intense explosion in the building.”
“The sound of a powerful explosion was heard at 8:15,” he said,”it could be heard from miles.” Ali said it was impossible for the building to have fallen to the ground within 3-4 minutes of the sound because of the fire alone. “It takes time for fire to eat-up concrete. It is impossible that the building erupted into flames and came down within five minutes,” said Ali Qadri.
Qadri said that there were many people in the building when it came down burning. “How can a building come down due to fire so quickly that the people inside the building did not even have time to find their way out? ,” questioned Ali Qadri. Ali said that there were many missing people as the plaza which came down had a small general store and a canteen on the ground floor which used to be filled with people.
No insurance: He also said that none of the buildings which were affected were insured. “There is no tradition of insuring building here”, said Ali Qadri. Answering a question from Pakistan Today Ali said that talks with the traders association were underway to launch an FIR on the incident.
More than 13 buildings were affected on different scales around the Bahria Plaza which came to the ground with in minutes after the fire had erupted. The building that became the source of the fire is located deep in Mochi Gate’s residential area. Smoke was present in the air and some parts of adjacent buildings continued to burn after 40 hours of the incident.
The narrow aisles of Mochi Gate were a great hindrance to extinguishing the fire as fire brigades had to operate 200 yards from the fire scene.
No firecrackers in this plaza: Bahria Plaza worker Saddique told Pakistan Today the plaza did not contain firecrackers rather that the building was used to store items like baby diapers, wrist watches, shampoos, perfumes, stickers, pencils, lipsticks and deodorants.
He said the building caught fire; but after the explosion. “The fire erupted from in the building after the explosion and heated perfumes and deodorants kept in the building which acted as fuel to the fire. Saddique, while picking up brunt lipsticks from the brunt down building asked, “does this look like a firecracker to you?”
Despite Saddique’s denial, eyewitnesses also claimed that they had seen firecrackers firing out of the enflamed building.
The plaza fell before we arrived: Rescue 1122 Public Relation’s Officer Faheem Jahanzeb talking to Pakistan Today confirmed that the plaza had crashed-in before the Rescue 1122 team reached the scene. “The plaza fell between 8:30 and 8:45”, he said. Faheem said that it was too early to determine whether it was a bomb blast or not.
He said that the fire was in cooling and that the cause of the fire would only be established after an investigation. He said that people start playing a blame game after an event like this and sited claims of a plaza owner after Gakhar Plaza burnt down in Rawalpindi. He said despite the owner’s claims the cause of Gakhar Plaza’s fire was revealed to be a short circuit.
It might be important to disclose that the Gakhar Plaza in Rawalpindi come down after burning for 12 extensive hours.
Team formed: On the other hand, District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema established a seven-member team to review victim’s losses. The team has been directed to report back to the DCO with-in three days. The committee consists of an Executive District Officer Revenue, Superintendent of Police, District Officer 1122, District Officer (civil defense), Fire office, LESCO and Sui Gas.