Part of dilapidated residential building collapses in Karachi

Part of the dilapidated residential building collapses in Karachi's Gulistan-e-Jauhar Bock 19.

In a CCTV footage, part of the residential building Welcome Terrace can be seen collapsing on a vehicle parked in the street.

Luckily no human loss was reported. There are a number of dilapidated residential buildings in the Karachi, in which masses are living despite warnings from the concerned authorities. 

City planners, engineers and experts of building plans at a symposium were sure that some 90 per cent of all structures in Karachi — residential, commercial and industrial — did not have fire prevention and firefighting system and agreed that it was ‘a criminal negligence’ on the part of the regulatory bodies like Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) that put lives of millions of people in the metropolis at risk.

The experts referred to the data that more than 15,000 people lost their lives and suffered losses of over a trillion rupees every year due to fire accidents across the country which mainly occurred in urban areas where majority of residential, commercial and industrial structures were raised in violation of defined building rules.

The warning regarding challenges of growing fire incidents and their possible prevention and available solutions came at the National Fire Safety Symposium & Risk Based Awards organised by Fire Protection Association of Pakistan (FPAP) at a local hotel.