21-year old Muhammad Wasiuddin Siddiqui’s first day at work turned fatal after he was killed in the fire that engulfed Karachi’s Chase departmental store.

Wasiuddin was among several employees who were rushed to the hospital to be treated for asphyxiation in the fire that broke out in the basement of the departmental store on Tuesday morning.

Initially, it was reported that the young man was at the departmental store to be interviewed for a job.

“This is misleading,” his brother Muhammad Faizan told Aaj News. “His interview took place 15 days earlier. June 1 was his first day at work when the incident occurred,” he said.

“Our brother was only 21 and no one can understand our loss.”

The youngest of four siblings, Wasiuddin was a final year student in the BS Economics programme at the University of Karachi. “He took up the job because he wanted to pay for his own education,” said his brother.

Faizan accused the department store management of ‘callous behaviour’, saying that the Chase management failed to inform the family about their brother’s situation.

He said that a team from the store came to their house in the evening ‘after sunset prayers’.

“They told us that seven people had been shifted to the Jinnah Hospital for treatment and told us to check whether our brother was there or not,” he said.

At the hospital, the family found that two people had been discharged. Meanwhile, a police officer told them that four people had been admitted. “Only one of those four had died. That was my brother,” said Faizan.

He said that the family was looking into the issue and would take legal action against the management of the departmental store.

SCBA takes notice

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has held the supermarket’s owner responsible for the fire that has claimed one life.

In a letter sent to the police, which is available with Aaj Digital, the SBCA has requested the police to book the owners of the supermarket.

“Owners of the departmental store were using the basement of Sumya Bridge View apartment as a store,” the SBCA said in its letter. It added that the SBCA authorities had approved the said basement to be used as a parking area.

The letter stated that the illegal conversion of the basement into a warehouse made it difficult for firefighters to control the fire.