Fire breaks out again at Karachi’s Gul Plaza; blaze controlled, four detained

KARACHI: A fire that broke out again at Gul Plaza has been brought under control, while cooling operations are still under way, officials said.

The development comes as authorities continue post-fire operations at the site and assess the circumstances surrounding the repeated outbreak. Further details about the damage and the exact sequence of events have not yet been released.

According to Deputy Commissioner South, the cause behind the fire reigniting has now emerged. Officials said several drug addicts were present in the basement at the time the blaze broke out again.

DC South Asma Batool said four drug addicts, including one injured person, were arrested in connection with the incident.

Towards the end of January, a catastrophic fire tore through Karachi’s Gul Plaza, killing 79 people and leaving dozens others unaccounted for. A Sindh government investigation later found that the blaze began when a matchstick ignited material inside a shop selling artificial flowers, setting off one of the city’s deadliest commercial building fires in recent memory.

But the report makes clear that the disaster was not caused by a single spark alone. It points to a wider chain of failures involving the building’s management, weak safety enforcement, and shortcomings in emergency response. According to the findings, the tragedy was the result of years of neglect, poor regulation and dangerous compromises that left the building highly vulnerable to fire.

The investigation highlights how routine violations and administrative lapses can turn a small accident into a mass-casualty event. It suggests that preventable safety risks had been allowed to accumulate over time, while oversight mechanisms failed to intervene before disaster struck.

Taken together, the report presents Gul Plaza not as an isolated accident, but as a stark example of systemic failure. The fire exposed deep flaws in urban safety governance, raising urgent questions about accountability, enforcement and whether other commercial buildings across Karachi remain vulnerable to similar tragedies.