Up in smoke :Alarming figures show city is far from fireproof

At least 1,274 fire incidents occurred in Lahore alone during first four months of 2017.

LAHORE: As the world marks International Firefighters’ Day on May 4, alarming statistics about fire incidents have emerged across Punjab.

According to data available with The Express Tribune, around 1,274 fire incidents took place in Lahore alone, while there were 6,003 such cases in Punjab during the first four months of 2017. At least 15 people lost their lives and 115 suffered burns in Lahore, while 40 people died in the province overall. As many as 358 suffered burn injuries.

Furthermore, at least 111 people died while 1,261 suffered burns in 20,038 fire incident between January 2016 and April 2017. Analysis of data shows that short-circuits have been main cause of most fire incidents throughout the year. Also, the number of fire incidents increased manifold as the temperature rises in summer.

Rescue 1122 Spokesperson Jam Sajjad Hussain said such cases increased during the summer because of various reasons. “Most of these incidents occurred because our wiring systems are poor and load increases in the summer,” he claimed. Furthermore, UPS batteries explode in the warmer months.



He added preventive measures were not taken to avoid fire incidents. The spokesperson added billions were spent on the construction of multi-storey plazas, but people never bothered to spend even a few thousands on the safety buildings. Sajjad pointed out that there was no law for pre fire safety arrangements in Pakistan. Fortunately, the law has been approved by the National Assembly and recommendations were presented to the chief minister for implementation of a fire safety code. “The law will provide a legal shelter to ensure fire safety codes. After implementation, people will adopt measures and also improve their service delivery mechanism,” he concluded.

CM forms cabinet committee

A cabinet committee was formed on Thursday to furbish fire safety recommendations in seven days. The CM presided over a meeting held in connection with International Firefighters’ Day. He directed development authorities to ensure that the fire safety plan was implemented in newly constructed buildings as part of the construction.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2017.