‘THE FIRE SPREAD RAPIDLY DUE TO COSMETICS, BLANKETS AND GARMENTS’ / ‘RESCUE VEHICLES HAD DIFFICULTY REACHING DUE TO CONSTRUCTION WORK NEAR THE ACCIDENT SITE’ / ‘MY SHOPS WERE BURNING BEFORE MY EYES.’

January 18, 2026

‘THE FIRE SPREAD RAPIDLY DUE TO COSMETICS, BLANKETS AND GARMENTS’

Former Secretary General of Gul Plaza Arif Qadri told the BBC that the fire broke out at 10:15 pm on Saturday night and within a few moments it completely engulfed all five streets of Gul Plaza.

He said that the fire spread so fast that people only had a chance to save their lives and could not even pick up any of their valuables.

‘We have seen big fires in Karachi, but this fire was of a different kind. When the fire broke out, 70% of the shops were open because there are more customers on Saturdays due to the weekend.’

He said that people managed to get out of the ground floor, but when the fire reached the floor above it, the shopkeepers and customers present there could not get out in time and deaths occurred there.

Was there proper fire exit arrangements in the plaza? In response to this question, Arif Qadri said that there were 13 entrances on the ground floor and that is why people immediately left here.

According to him, there were fire extinguishers on every floor and the shopkeepers tried to put out the fire through them, but the fire was so intense that it was of no use.

He said that the fire quickly engulfed the plaza due to the cosmetic, blanket and garment shops.

‘RESCUE VEHICLES HAD DIFFICULTY REACHING DUE TO CONSTRUCTION WORK NEAR THE ACCIDENT SITE’

On the other hand, Rescue 1122 officials in Sindh attributed the difficulties in extinguishing the fire to the ongoing development work in the area.

Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassan Al-Haseeb said that due to excavation and narrowing of the road due to the BRT project near the accident site, rescue vehicles faced difficulties in reaching Gul Plaza.

Speaking to the BBC, he said, “On the one hand, the road was narrow and on the other hand, a large number of people were there just to watch the spectacle, due to which the entire road was blocked and it was difficult for the waterblowers to find their way there.”

He said that the second challenge was that the entry and exit routes of the building were not properly determined, due to which we were forced to make another route.

According to Hassan Al-Haseeb, the third challenge was that the shopkeepers were not moving away from the accident site because they were trying to save their goods.

He said that a KMC firefighter was killed and another firefighter was injured when a part of Gul Plaza collapsed.

According to Hassan Al-Haseeb, the fire has been 60 percent controlled, but it is flaring up again in some parts of the building from time to time.

“The building has been badly damaged. The back part of the building has collapsed now, but the front part can collapse at any time.’

On Sunday morning, Provincial Minister Saeed Ghani also visited Gul Plaza and while talking to the media, he said that ‘those who build buildings, those who live in them or do business in them suffer the most in such incidents.’

‘Safety measures need to be ensured while constructing buildings, there are shortcomings here and there which result in losses.’

‘MY SHOPS WERE BURNING BEFORE MY EYES.’

A shopkeeper named Zain told the News Channel that the fire broke out on the ground floor at 10:30 pm on Saturday night and hundreds of people were inside the plaza besides the shopkeepers.

He said that the shopkeepers helped people to get out of the plaza on their own.

He alleged that the rescue personnel tried to put out the fire from outside instead of going inside, due to which they faced difficulties in rescuing the people inside.

“My shops kept burning in front of my eyes, we could not even remove the goods from these shops. Many people are still inside, I have many friends with whom there is no contact.”

However, Sindh government spokesperson Sadia Javed says that “everyone is speculating that people are trapped inside. Rescue personnel did not enter inside and even the market management does not know authentically how many people are trapped.”

According to Zain, there are three bag shops in Gul Plaza, which have been reduced to ashes.

The Sindh government spokesperson confirmed that two parts of Gul Plaza have been razed to the ground due to the fire.

‘There are also chemicals and plastic inside, which causes fires to flare up again and again.’

Another shopkeeper named Sufyan from Gul Plaza says that his jewellery shop was in the collapsed part of the plaza.

Sufyan said that his brother-in-law and a salesman were present at the shop when the fire broke out, but their whereabouts are still unknown.

According to Zain, Gul Plaza has 32 entrances and after the fire broke out, rescue workers could have entered through any of them and tried to put out the fire. But they did not have the necessary equipment to control such a large-scale fire.

An elderly citizen present at the scene of the accident was outside the plaza to inquire about his niece, her three daughters, granddaughter and son.

Speaking to the News Channel, he said that these people had come to Gul Plaza yesterday for wedding shopping.

They said, "We pray to Allah to show us a miracle and let us breathe. All the family members are worried." They said, "These are six members of the same family, who had locked their house. Now, who will open the lock of this house, only Allah knows."