Massive fire at Geo HQ; teamwork saves the day
KARACHI: A massive fire broke out at the Geo headquarters in Karachi on Saturday afternoon, causing extensive damage running into millions of dollars and disrupting the Geo network transmission for several hours. Fortunately, no serious injuries to staff or any loss of life was caused by the fire.
According to details, the fire broke out at around 2:10pm on the sixth floor of Geo’s headquarters at I I Chundrigar Road. The fire started abruptly, under mysterious circumstances, in the main studio of Geo News and quickly engulfed the central newsroom and spread to the fifth floor, housing the network’s corporate staff, and it was only a matter of minutes before the flames were licking the seventh floor and devouring whatever came in their way.
Geo’s Spokesperson and President Imran Aslam said, “We can lose things but can’t replace lives. Thank God, we lost no one to the fire.” However, it was reported that more than five people fainted and were taken to hospital. All were stable and had recovered by the time of the filing of this report even though some continue to remain hospitalised.
A letter sent to TeamGeo by their CEO read, “We must thank our families, friends, fellow colleagues in our industry and our advertisers and our viewers who have come out with overwhelming support.”
Eyewitnesses reported that TeamGeo members reacted with admirable dedication and bravery during the entire incident. Director HR of Geo Zulfiqar Ali said, “I myself had to request people to leave the building but most wanted to stay put and help instead. “It was almost surreal to see so many people rushing towards the fire instead of fleeing from it. They were even coming from other floors, wanting to help colleagues and to save whatever could be saved,” he added in an emotional manner.
Echoing these sentiments, Managing Director Geo News Azhar Abbas said, “Jang and Geo people kept on moving towards the fire, searching for others, saving those who had fainted, then saving the equipment through which they tell the stories of Pakistan.”
Millions of dollars worth of equipment was completely destroyed by the fire, with expensive machines reduced to molten blobs of plastic and metal. Ironically, water proved equally destructive as the fire it ultimately doused. Computers and other equipment was also destroyed by the water from the fire fighters who tried their best to make sure the fire was prevented from spreading to more floors and endangering lives of hundreds of other staffers of the Jang Group, also housed in the same multi-storey building.
Firefighters from the Saddar and Central fire stations appeared within 30 minutes of the fire and dozens of them risked their lives while fighting the flames. Mohammad Masood Alam, EDO Municipal Services, said, “We are proud of our boys even though we do not have the ideal equipment that could help us save more lives and property.”
The Geo spokesperson apologised for any interruption in its services to its viewers and promised, “Everything is being done to get our transmissions back to normal soon. Already, our back-up systems have started to work so our viewers’ expectations can be managed.”
Fire experts are investigating the cause of the fire and also the exceptionally fast manner of its spreading to such a wide area within a few minutes time span. Senior Engineer and Head of Technical Afaq Ahmad claimed, “Arson can’t be ruled out and we started third party investigations the same evening.”
Source: The News
Date:5/22/2011
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