(Peshawar) A fire ravaged on Tuesday the camp of a Chinese company responsible for the construction of a hydroelectric dam in northwestern Pakistan, we learned from the emergency services.
The fire spread at dawn in hangars used for the construction of the Dasu dam, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 180 km north of the capital Islamabad.
The camp housed Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanics, but the fire caused no casualties, according to police and Pakistani emergency services Rescue 1122.
“It was a huge fire,” a Rescue 1122 official who was present at the scene told AFP. “Initially the flames were very intense and we had to call in fire engines from two other districts. »
“It was a big warehouse, where were stored barrels of oil, office supplies and machinery. Everything was destroyed in the fire,” he added.
An electrical fault was the cause, according to a local police official.
Chinese companies are working on many infrastructure projects in Pakistan, a country in which Beijing has invested billions of dollars in recent years.
The most important of these projects is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which provides for the modernization of transport and telecommunications networks in Pakistan, as well as energy infrastructures, to link western China to the sea. Arabia.