A fire that started at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) building in Karachi on Monday and caused trading to be suspended for approximately two hours has now been brought under control, according to rescue officials.
Hassaan Khan, spokesperson for Sindh Rescue 1122, reported that there were no casualties. The fire initially broke out on the fourth floor of the Ali Habib Trading Company building on I.I. Chundrigar Road, Khan stated. Fire brigades promptly arrived at the scene to begin the cooling process of the building.
Upon receiving the alert, two fire brigade trucks from Rescue 1122’s Central Command and Control swiftly responded, with a total of six fire brigades and one snorkel eventually deployed to extinguish the blaze.
Trading activities at the PSX were halted around 10:30am due to the fire and resumed at approximately 12:30pm. Following the containment of the fire, the KSE-100 index surged significantly, gaining 484 points in intraday trade to reach 80,697 points by 2pm. The index closed at 80,566.2 points by the end of the day, marking an increase of 353.41 points or 0.44 percent.
Earlier in February, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation informed the Sindh High Court that it had conducted a fire safety audit of more than 265 commercial buildings, revealing significant deficiencies in compliance with fire safety regulations.
