KARACHI: The fire at the Chase department store raged on for 45 hours before it was finally put out on Friday. The fire department says that the cooling process is underway in the basement where the fire started. This means the building remains vacant with residents having nowhere to go.

A female resident of the Sumya Bridge View building, speaking on the condition of anonmity, said her family has been squatting under the open sky for the last three days.

“Some of our neighbours spend the night on the road as they have no relatives or place to go in Karachi,” said the resident of the building where the departmental store is located.

“Another neighbour, a woman with a special-needs child, spent the night on the road as she had nowhere to go,” said the resident. Those who have gone to their relatives are also facing great difficulties, she added.

She said the city administration and the provincial government were yet to provide them with temporary housing. “We all are middle class people. We can’t afford to stay in hotels for days,” she said.

She said residents found out about the fire around 11am on Wednesday. She claimed that the fire had started much earlier. “The Chase administration didn’t even inform the guards of the building where they are located.” The building has 170 flats.

“I am sure you will not be able to find the Chase owners. They are nowhere to be seen,” she continued. “We don’t know whether they will get convicted. But one thing is for sure that they haven’t lost anything because of insurance.”

Visibly worried, she was unsure whether the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) would clear the building for residents to return. “Our house is our lifelong saving and we have nowhere to live other than this.”

She said the residents must be adequately compensated in case the building is found unfit for residence.

Another resident Muhammad Wajid said that the fire department failed to show desired urgency in putting out the fire.

“The supervisor during the day delays the extinguishing process by two hours. During this time the fire blazes up.”

He said that residents were concerned why the fire was allowed to intensify during the day and brought under control at night during the 45 hours that it took to bring under control. Wajid added that he was satisfied with the performance of the night shift of the fire brigade team.

“We urge the government to make temporary housing arrangements for us,” said Wajid. “We used to live in apartment worth billions of rupees and now we are on street.”

The price of a flat in Sumya Bridge View is between 30 to 60 million rupees, residents say.

“We are praying that the fire gets stopped so that we can take our belongings and find somewhere to live,” said Wajid.

While talking about the fire extinguishing process, Shoaib Khan, the fire station officer said that the “fire cooling process” was underway. He said the fire department had drilled holes in the floor so that water and foam could be thrown on the fire that had been raging in the basement.

“This is a third degree fire. It is the most intense in terms of degrees.” He refused to say by when the the situation would be brought under control. “There are 50 people working on it. So the cooling of the basement should be completed in a coupe of days.”

He pointed out that the lack of emergency exits in the basement was making it difficult to expedite the cooling process. “The basement has only one door so we had to break the walls to get inside.”

On Thursday, the Sindh government had set up one one camp to provide first aid. “We are providing first aid to fire fighters and volunteers who are coming to the camp,” said Dr. Mohsin Ali, who was present at the camp.

He said that anti allergy medicines were being provided to the fire fighters. “Those who are suffering from breathing problems are being provided oxygen.” So far firefighters have not reported any burns or injury.