The fatal fire erupted at Lahore’s busiest electronic hubs, Hafeez Center, on Thursday in the Gulberg area and rapidly covered the multi-storey complex in smoke, forcing evacuations and sparking the debate of city’s commercial building safety.
As per the initial encounter of Rescue 1122 teams’ flames raced through wiring conduits beneath ground level, filling corridors with toxic fumes while firefighters battled to reach trapped shopkeepers.
By late afternoon government reported no deaths, yet the drastic episode has intensified scrutiny of a busiest marketplace that already carries a reputation for danger.
Initial assessments by the authority directed to an electrical short exposed cables and neglected inspections, highlighting what safety analysts call Lahore’s lingering enforcement gap.
Hafeez Center fire sparks fresh alarm over Lahore’s safety protocols
The complex’s history adds weight to the concern. In October 2020, a fourteen-hour blaze destroyed up to five hundred shops in Hafeez Center and cost roughly Rs 3 billion in losses, after which a government committee sealed the cracked structure and cited non-functional firefighting gear.
A decade earlier, in December 2010, faulty wiring and petrol cans turned a short circuit into another destructive blaze that gutted five stalls.
Critics argue the authorities allowed normal business to resume without mandatory rewiring, structural audits or updated fire clearances, leaving thousands at risk.
For countries urban security planners, Thursday’s fire is yet another warning that negligent oversight can paralyze a key commercial artery, and that the next alarm may not end as mercifully.
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