Recurring fires expose safety gaps at H-9 Weekly Bazaar in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: The recurring incidents of fire at the H-9 Weekly Bazaar in the federal capital have exposed safety gaps besides causing heavy financial losses to traders and civic agencies. Sources point out that the failure of city managers to ensure the “dawn-to-dusk” policy has turned the H-9 Weekly Bazaar into a permanent shopping area. They said stallholders keep their goods on-site against the rules, posing a permanent fire risk. It was further reported that a fire tender was also missing when a blaze broke out on Tuesday. The recent fire, which engulfed over 374 stalls out of a total 2,749, once again left stallholders in distress, with garments worth millions of rupees reduced to ashes. This was the fifth major fire incident in the bazaar over the past nine years. Although the cause of the latest fire has yet to be determined by an inquiry committee, concerns remain that further incidents could occur if proper measures are not taken, as vendors store their goods in stalls like warehouses and cover them with tarpaulins that are highly flammable. A source said that whenever a fire breaks out, it spreads rapidly due to the absence of the practice of removing goods at the end of the day. “Stalls, particularly those selling clothes, are filled like permanent shops, and when fire breaks out, it spreads quickly,” the source said. The source added that earlier stallholders used solar panels, uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems and backup generators, but this practice was stopped last year. Despite this, another major fire incident still occurred, raising serious concerns. It was also pointed out that the fire tender was not present at the site when the fire started. “Had the fire tender been present, the fire could have been controlled to some extent. The fire started at 9:47pm, while the fire tender reached at 9:56pm, by which time significant damage had already occurred,” the source said. It is relevant to note that, according to standard operating procedures (SO