What happened

A fire began in the direct-current battery-bank area of Jamshoro Thermal Power Station's Unit 1 and spread into the joint control room serving Units 1 and 2, damaging batteries, control displays, cables and adjacent infrastructure. Outside fire crews were called because the plant's own tenders could not reach or control the blaze; smoke and fire persisted for much of the day. No casualties were reported, and the legacy plant had already been on standby or largely closed for about two and a half years. JPCL chief executive Mohammad Abdul Wakeel attributed the ignition to a short circuit, said turbines, boilers and auxiliaries remained safe and described the damage as not serious. Union representatives disputed that assessment, alleged losses could reach billions of rupees, blamed poor maintenance and called the fire preplanned. Those allegations were not independently substantiated. A three-member inquiry was tasked with determining the cause, losses, maintenance lapses and responsibility, but the reviewed sources did not provide a final report. Contemporary follow-up reporting identifies the incident date as 20 March; 21 March was the publication date of the first Dawn report.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.