Daily Times

LAHORE: A foam-manufacturing warehouse and a motorcycle factory, located in the same building on Gurumangat Road in Gulberg Industrial Area, caught fire on Thursday, burning valuable goods to ashes and causing a serious financial loss to the owner. However, no casualties were reported on the occasion.

The fire was so severe that within no time, the flames engulfed the whole factory and warehouse building, causing the roof and walls of the factory to collapse during the rescue operation.

The fire, which erupted in the warehouse at 1:50pm and quickly spread across the entire building, was controlled after continuous hectic efforts by the fire brigades and rescue teams who reached the site immediately to control the situation.

The rescue teams faced a lot of difficulty as the building was situated between the industrial and residence areas, however after rigorous efforts, they were able to extinguish the fire. The workers managed to run outside the factory building when the incident occurred, while the cause of fire could not be ascertained until the filing of this story.

A senior rescue official said that the fire broke out in the upper portion of the building due to short circuit, adding that burning of chemical and high quantity foam resulted in heavy smoke, which covered the sky and made it difficult for the residents to breathe.

He said that due to the severe fire, rescue officials also evacuated the nearby buildings and houses for precautionary measures. The rescuers also used the rooftops of surrounding buildings for several hours to extinguish the fire.

The factory fire spread terror and panic in the local area. Upon being informed, a number of locals including women and children as well as workers of different local factories reached the spot to monitor the rescue operation.

High ranking police officers, government officials and the officials of concerned departments also reached the spot and expressed their concern over the incident. The officials said that no casualties were reported in the incident, however goods worth millions of rupees were gutted to ashes.

In another incident, two people died in a road accident on Thursday. Police said that the motorcyclists, identified as Adrees and Afzal, were on their way to Shahdra when some unknown vehicles hit them and managed to escape from the scene. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital where both persons succumbed to injuries. Police handed over the dead bodies after fulfilling the legal formalities.