On the night of 17 January 2026 at 10:15 pm, a major fire broke out at the Gul Plaza shopping centre on Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road in Karachi. The blaze spread rapidly through the multi-story commercial building, resulting in over 70 deaths, injuries, and extensive damage.
A committee formed by the Sindh government to investigate the circumstances that led to the devastating fire at the Gul Plaza shopping mall initiated its probe as the death toll reached 78 at the writing of this news release, but the final toll remains inclusive. The Sindh chief secretary had formed the body, comprising Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi and the Karachi additional inspector general, directing that a report be submitted within seven days.
Meanwhile, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said that based on the KMC’s audit of various buildings, the SBCA had started to “take action.” The SBCA letter attached to the post and addressed to the Abad chairman said that the KMC’s fire department had conducted a fire safety audit and identified owners/builders who had failed to meet safety requirements. On Monday, January 19, Mayor Murtaza Wahab said that the tally thus far showed that 65 people were missing.
A timeline of major blazes in Karachi
Below is a timeline of major fire incidents in Karachi in 2025-26.
• January 16, 2026: At least 20 containers were destroyed when a fire erupted at the Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT).
• December 22, 2025: A fire broke out at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Landhi and was brought under control after several hours.
• December 4, 2025: The building of a garment factory in the EPZ collapsed after a fire erupted there, injuring two firefighters.
• November 23, 2025: A fire that broke out in a freight train at Cantt Station destroyed dried fruits, solar inverters, and batteries inside the two bogies that were completely gutted. The same day, two people became unconscious due to smoke inhalation when a fire erupted in a high-rise building in the Soldier Bazaar area.
• November 2, 2025: No casualties were reported when a fire erupted near Munawar Chowrangi in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, although more than 300 huts were destroyed, along with motorcycles and sewing machines, while some goats were also killed.
• October 27, 2025: One person was killed in a fire outside Karachi University, which engulfed a nearby graveyard, damaged some graves, and destroyed around 10-20 huts (makeshift houses).
• October 15, 2025: Five people, including two children, suffered burns when a fire erupted in a candle factory in the Sher Shah area, while a falling structure injured one person. The fire destroyed the industrial unit, as well as two nearby warehouses and four residential properties.
• October 8, 2025: No casualties were reported after a fire erupted in a plastic factory in Liaquatabad.
• September 27, 2025: Two women died of suffocation, and nine people were injured in a fire that erupted in a four-storey building in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
• September 9, 2025: At least four firemen and one cameraman of a private TV channel were injured when a fire destroyed a garment factory in New Karachi Industrial Area.
• August 21, 2025: Six people died, and 33 were injured when a fire broke out in a warehouse near Karachi’s Taj Medical Complex on MA Jinnah Road.
• August 7, 2025: Eight people were injured in a massive factory fire at the EPZ that damaged three other factories.
• June 17, 2025: A massive fire that erupted in Millennium Mall, ostensibly due to an electrical short circuit, destroyed several hundred shops.
• June 1, 2025: Eleven people were rescued, and no loss of life was reported when a fire broke out at the 12-storey Al-Rahim Tower on I.I. Chundrigar Road.
• April 10, 2025: A massive fire erupted in a factory inside the EPZ. All raw material inside the factory, which was a plastic manufacturing industrial unit, was destroyed.
• March 10, 2025: A massive fire triggered by a cylinder explosion in an eatery in the afternoon destroyed 150 shops of a timber market on the Superhighway.
• February 15, 2025: Five members of the same family suffered critical burn wounds in an explosion caused by a leakage in a gas geyser in a four-storey house in Federal B Area’s Block 2 near Al-Falah Masjid.
• February 12, 2025: An abandoned restaurant at Do Darya in DHA Phase 8 was engulfed in a massive fire, which spread rapidly due to the restaurant’s wooden structure.
Leave a Reply