By Aamir Latif
KARACHI
Firefighters struggled for 13 hours to put out a huge fire that engulfed a timber market and an adjoining residential bloc in the southern port city of Karachi late on Saturday night, officials said.
Several houses and shops were gutted by the fire that, according to initial investigations, could be result of an electrical fault.
The commissioner of Karachi, Shoaib Siddiqui, told reporters that at least 35 houses and shops were damaged by the fire.
Scores of residents, who spent the chilly night out on the streets, blamed an incompetent fire department for taking so long to put out the fire.
No casualties or major injuries were reported. A huge cache of timber worth millions of rupees, however, was burned in the fire.
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