6 burnt alive in Pindi girls hostel blaze

SHAHID RAO and ISRAR AHMED
RAWALPINDI At least six students were burnt to death while five others including a boy received critical injuries as huge fire erupted at the Nation Foundation Girls Hostel located in Lal Kurti area of Rawalpindi on Monday.
The deceased female students were identified as Batool, Sobia, Attiya, Iqra Naheed, Huma Rashid and Naveeda Mazhar.
However, the fire fighters of Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue-1122) rescued at least 40-50 female students. 10 of them were taken to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Military Hospital (MH) and the District Headquarter Hospital (DHQ).
The fire that erupted at 4:15 pm engulfed the whole floor of the hostel. The female students started crying and screaming for help as soon as the incident took place. Naseem Maseh and Fida, employees of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP, rushed for their help but received burn injuries. Both the injured persons were shifted to the DHQ for medical treatment.
The hostel was filled with smoke following the fire and thick clouds of smoke also covered the sky. Scores of the citizens reached there to see the rescue operation. Police and Pakistan Army men cordoned off the whole area. On getting call from the hostel management, fire fighters rushed to the scene and extinguished fire after the efforts of one and half hours. Pakistan Army officers and personnel also took part in the rescue operation. By 5:37 pm, the situation was brought under control.
The rescuers rescued the trapped girls by fixing the stairs with the walls of the hostel. Pakistan Army personnel entered inside the building and broken the windowpanes of the hostel with the help of riffle to exhaust the smoke.
Station Commander Rawalpindi, Brig Saifullah Khan Niazi, District Coordination Officer, (DCO) Imdad Ullah Bosal, SSP Operations, Yasin Farooq and SP Potohar Town, Kamran Adil also arrived at the site and reviewed the rescue operation.
At one time, the police and Army personnel pushed the media men and other persons away from the hostel building saying, Cracks have appeared in the building due to which the building can collapse any time.
According to hostel director Zeeshan, fire started at 4:15pm in a room number 315 that was situated on the third floor and rapidly spread to the whole floor. He said the student living in that room, was not present and it was locked. It may possible that the girls residing in the room left iron or electric heater switched on, which caused fire.
A total of 145 female students of the different educational institutions are residing in 55 rooms of the hostel, out of which, 45 went to their homes. At the time of incident only 40 students were present in the hostel building Zeeshan added.
However, a girl student standing along with her father near the affected building told TheNation that short circuit was the reason of fire.
DCO Imadad Ullah Bosal and SP Potohar Town Kamran Adil, while talking to media men said that the reason of fire yet to be found. It is too early to say how fire erupted in the building, they said. The injured and expired students were brought to the CMH, MH and DHQ for medical treatment, the said.
The fire fighters and fire brigades of the Rescue-1122, the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR), GHQ, Bahria Town, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) took part in the operation.
The security forces including bomb disposal squad, after searching the building, sealed the building. However, further investigations were underway, sources informed.
Later, all the girls, who are living in the hostel, were shifted to the Hotel Holiday.