Shah Alam aftermath: 200 hydrants planned to fight future fires

Traders dissatisfied with the pace of clean-up.

LAHORE: Lahore is to have two hundred fire hydrants installed to increase its fire fighting capacity, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Rescue 1122 district emergency officer Ahmad Raza said that the two hundred and fifty fire hydrants are to be installed in the next month. He said the fire hydrants would enhance the capacity of fire fighters in dealing with fire in the walled city. Eight of the fire hydrants would be installed in the Shah Alam Market area.

Raza said that as there was no way heavy machinery could be brought in to remove the debris, it would be removed in a month by manual labour. Raza said that they had been requesting the city government for a long time to install the hydrants. He said there were 32 hydrants in different commercial areas of the city. He said, due to some problem, the city government stopped installing more fire hydrants.

Raza said that if the hydrants had been installed earlier the Shah Alam Market fire catastrophe could have been averted. He said the first phase of the clean-up will consist of digging out bodies from the debris. The problem of the instability of the dilapidated buildings would be resolved by supporting the structures using scaffolding, he said. Qadri Plaza, he said, was very unstable as a large portion of it was razed. Raza said engineers had been called to vet plans for the rescue efforts. He added that some traders had prevented them from removing the debris.

Civil Defence officer Tariq Waheed said that the TMO should have made it mandatory to have fire hydrants installed with the high rise buildings that were constructed on the Shah Alam Market. He said that five years ago when Civil Defence had the power they had ensured that precautions were taken. He said TMOs tended not to consult them.

An Accident Command Post has been created on Thursday in the area. People thronged in large number to participate in the rescue activity, however, they were stopped by the rescue workers from participating in the evacuation.

Several traders expressed their dissatisfaction with the pace of the clean-up work. Some of them admitted that the partially collapsed plaza was a big threat to the nearby construction. Currently traders continue to protest at Shah Alam Market against the inefficiency of the government. Heavy police contingents remain deployed at Shah Alam Market. The traders demanded that the government help them to re-start their businesses.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th,  2011.