KARACHI: Muhammad Imran did not take the fire seriously at first, thinking it was another small spark at the Karachi mall that would be quickly extinguished by fellow shop owners.
But smoke seeped through ducts and blackened the air in seconds. The lights went out soon after and phone flashlights turned useless, people could no longer see their own hands, he said.
Imran, who has diabetes and has undergone heart surgery, managed only a few steps before nearly giving up. “It felt like doomsday,” he said. “You couldn’t see the person next to you.”
The blaze would rage for nearly two days and reduce Gul Plaza, a multi-story complex of 1,200 family-run shops selling children’s clothes, toys, crockery and household goods, to ash.
At least 67 people were killed, with 15 still missing and feared dead, police official Asad Ali Raza said, in the January 17 blaze, the Pakistani port city’s largest in over a decade.
