Capital plans to acquire new fire tenders

Mayor says rescue workers to get training for capacity building.

ISLAMABAD: The city government will acquire additional fire tenders for its fleet in addition to arranging training for its rescue workers.

This was stated Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) Mayor and Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Anser Aziz said on Saturday while chairing a meeting of senior officials of the civic body and the Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate (E&DMD).



“Capacity of the directorate would be improved, strengthened and further upgraded to cope with any emergency situation or natural calamity,” the mayor. His comments weeks after the spring season had brought with it several reports of fires erupting on the Margalla Hills.

Aziz, however, acknowledged that staff of the E&DM had proved their professionalism and technical expertise in not only in the twin cities but also in other parts of the country.

The mayor told the meeting that they were making special arrangements for imparting professional training to rescue workers and acquire latest fire tenders for their fleet of emergency response vehicles.



He directed the concerned officers to ensure that officials and technical staff of E&DM receive the latest training at local and international levels so that they could be equipped with modern technical knowledge of how to control emergency situations.

He further directed to take necessary steps for creating awareness among the general public about the precautionary and safety measures against the fire incidents for minimum losses.

The mayor was told that in the past week, the E&DMD had responded to 42 emergency calls. Of these, four were about fires erupting on green belts, 10 were about electrical fires, one was for a house fire, one for a shop fire, a factory blaze.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2017.