The death toll rose to 71 and likely will go higher from the Gul Plaza fire that occurred Saturday night in Karachi, Pakistan. Photo by Shahzaib Akber/EPA
An updated report Friday elevates to 71 the death toll from last week’s plaza fire in Karachi, Pakistan, that was made worse by the lack of fire suppression and locked exit gates.
Sixteen victims have been identified, including nine who required DNA testing to determine their identities, police surgeon Summaiya Syed reported in an updated list.
DNA tests have been done on 49 samples, so another 40 might be identified if local authorities can match them.
More bodies have yet to be recovered from various parts of the plaza building, so the death toll will rise, Syed said.
“The search in the wreckage will be completed today,” South Deputy Commissioner Javed Nabi Khoso told media Friday.
He said the search operations were in their final stages, and 77 people were reported missing.
No active fire suppression
The cause of the fire has not been identified, but local officials said it started in the structure’s basement and spread because there was no active fire-suppression system.
“Either the fire safety system was not present in the building, or it was not activated,” said Wajid Sibghatullah Mahar, director-general of Sindh Rescue 1122.
He said the ground floor remains to be searched and hopes to find the remaining missing bodies there.
The Sindh Building and Control Authority was in charge of the search and recovery operations, and the last 10% to 15% of the structure was set to be searched for fire victims.
The 70,000-square-foot Gul Plaza shopping center caught fire on Saturday night, and it took firefighters 24 hours to put it out after it spread rapidly.
Most exit gates were locked
The plaza contained about 1,200 retail shops, which were busy amid Karachi’s traditional wedding season, according to the BBC.
The fire broke out at the same time that staff at many of the shops were preparing to close, and most of the plaza’s gates were locked.
Three of the plaza’s 16 exits were open when the fire began, and dense crowds of shoppers made it harder for people to find open exits and safely flee the inferno.
The plaza also had many stalls that compounded the difficulty for people to locate and exit through the few gates that were open.
