LDA Plaza blaze finally under control after 20 hours of firefighting

LAHORE: Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Plaza fire, which had broken out at 11:40 AM on Thursday, was ultimately extinguished in the Friday morning after hours and hours of firefighting efforts, Geo News reported.

At least five persons jumped to death fleeing the fire and dozens of others received serious burns and other fire-related injuries after it erupted in the 7th floor of the LDA Plaza, Egerton Road here on Thursday.

Scores of people were reported to be still trapped inside the high-rise building, where fire spread to the upper floors while clouds of thick black smoke engulfed the affected floors.

However, LDA sources said at least 13 employees from different departments were stranded in the building as yet, however what became of those stuck inside the burning building was yet to be reported.

The missing remain unaccounted for as yet.

The rescue teams, fire brigade units struggled almost the whole day and night to tame the blaze, which had spread to other floors of the building.

The dead were identified as Ikramul Haq, Mohammad Iqbal, Riaz and Asif and an unidentified man. Families of the trapped people said the performance of the Rescue 1122 service was not up to the mark, as the rescuers failed to contain the fire to the 7th floor where at first it started.

The building has at least 35 rented offices and densely populated rooms in the upper floors. As soon as the fire broke out, those at floors higher than the 7th couldn’t escape and were forced to take refuge on the plaza roof. The smoke emitting from the building started getting denser within minutes.

The first rescue vehicle to arrive at the scene was approximately after 30 minutes of the start of the inferno. There was a stiff breeze blowing at that part of the day which caused spread of the fire at a very fast pace and within 30 minutes, it had engulfed the eighth and ninth floors partially as well.

The people below the seventh floor escaped; however, those unfortunate ones who could not make it to the roof in time were forced to lean out of windows, as breathing had become impossible due to suffocating thick smoke.

The people at the roof had to wait at least for an hour to receive response from the rescue teams. Those already on the rooftop tried to rescue the people leaning out of the eighth floor windows through ropes.
Although they successfully hauled four persons onto the roof with the help of the rope, the fifth one was not fortunate enough as he lost grip and came crashing down approximately 135 feet to the ground, sustaining serious injuries and finally succumbing to them.

A helpless man, sitting in the window of the ninth floor of the building, awaited rescue officials for more than four hours, but none of them tried to save his life. However, the fire continued to follow him and after losing hope he jump to the ground. However, he was seriously injured and died on the spot.

Another man fell down as he lost grip of the rope, which was thrown from the rooftop to save the ill-fated persons stuck in the middle of fire with no escape route. Similarly, two more persons jumped from the building as they found no way out to save themselves from heat and thick black smoke billowing out of the building.

Five floors of the building including 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th were being used by the LDA, while the rest had been rented out. Two floors, 8th and 9th, were being used by the LDA administrative staff including LDA DG and ADG. Maryam Kiani, additional DG LDA, had recently shifted the legal directorate of the LDA from Court Road to the 7th floor of the LDA Plaza.

This fire burnt to ashes the record of all cases in which the LDA itself was a complainant or a respondent. That means the LDA cannot pursue any of these cases pending with various courts. Their only hope rests with the legal consultancy firms the LDA had hired to assist it.
The record of all recruitment, current and old, was also burnt to ashes along with all inquiries and pending penalties against employees found guilty of various irregularities.

The accounting record of all types pertaining to LDA regarding balance of payments, pending payables and receivables has been lost as well. This means that all transactional records regarding housing colonies bought, sold and/or established partly or wholly by LDA has been lost forever.

Another crucial record lost was of all the audits done from the inception of the LDA to date. The fire broke out on the 7th floor first and later the 5th, 6th, 8th, and 9th floors were completely engulfed in flames. No alarm sounded in the building to alert the occupants for their timely evacuation. All the floors were occupied by hundreds of people when the fire broke out due to a short-circuiting, ignited by a generator.

Building experts believe the plaza had totally been destroyed in fire and it would not be usable even after the fire is put out. It was suspected that many people trapped in various rooms died of suffocation.

Several fire tenders and dozens of rescue workers were seen busy in controlling the furious fire. People trapped in the building were evacuated through army helicopters, but thick black smoke billowing out of the building created difficulties in the rescue work. At least 15 persons were taken out safely from the building by helicopters.

The towers installed at the rooftop of the building worsened the situation as the helicopters could not land on the rooftop to rescue the trapped people.

According to eyewitnesses, dozens of people were trapped inside the building. Hundreds of people rushed to the scene to get information about their dear ones. The fire-fighters could not enter the said floors till the filing of the report. The building was not equipped with proper fire-fighting system, a rescuer said and added that there was no emergency exit in the building.

Rescuers shifted at least 20 persons to various hospitals.According to Rescue 1122, the rescuers faced challenge due to the restricted access to the building due to construction on one side and raised platforms and basement on other side.

Furthermore, the ducting also caused rapid spread of smoke and fire in the building. Rescue 1122 received fire call at 11:56 am almost 40 minutes late when the incident actually took place.

According to details, four helicopters were called in by the city administration. However, two were provided by the Pakistan Army and one came from Governor’s Punjab and one from Chief Minister Punjab. Three rescue teams landed on roof of the building and 15 fire rescuers wearing Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) and seat-harness entered the plaza and evacuated 26 people.

Rescue spokesman said nine fire vehicles including two turntable ladders, aerial platforms, water bousers and other fire trucks reached the spot and started fire fighting. Over 90 per cent fire was under control till filing of this report.

Around 26 people sustained multiple burn injuries. Some of them were identified as Zaffar Khan, Shamas Alam, Waseem Shah, Ikramul Haq, Ishaq, Jamshed, Talib Hussain, M Iqbal, Riaz, Nasir, Khadim, Azam, Naseer, Anwar, Ramzan etc, whereas two rescuers - Sabir and Ghulam Mustafa - also received burn injuries. However, four people among the injured died at hospitals.

The injured persons were taken to Ganga Ram, Services and Mayo Hospitals where condition of eight persons was said to be serious.

Agencies add: Business tycoon Malik Riaz on Thursday announced Rs0.5 million compensation each for the families of the dead.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has taken notice of reports regarding burning of precious record, including that of revenue in the LDA Plaza fire incident in Lahore. NAB Chairman Admiral (Retired) Fasih Bokhari directed NAB Punjab to take cognizance of the incident and look for the possible reasons of the fire.

President Asif Zardari, meanwhile, expressed deep shock and grief over the loss of precious lives in the LDA Plaza in Lahore. He called for an inquiry into the unfortunate incident.