Govt to provide latest fire tenders to industrial zones in Sindh

Every industrial zone will be fully responsible for repair, maintenance of equipment, says labour minister

KARACHI: Keeping in view the increasing frequency of fires at factories and warehouses in the city, the Sindh government has decided to provide state-of-the-art fire engines to all the industrial zones of the province on an immediate basis.

This was stated on Friday by Information, Labour, and Transport Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah during a meeting with a delegation of the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) at his office.

The minister said the decision would help prevent financial and material losses to industrialists and casualities of industrial workers.
Shah said that every industrial zone will be fully responsible for the repair and maintenance of the fire tenders handed over to them by the provincial government. He said that all factories were required to train their staff and provide necessary equipment for in-house firefighting operations in case of any emergency.



Mere provision of fire tenders to industrial zones would not provide a complete solution to the problem as factories are also under an obligation to take all safety and precautionary measures required to deal with any fire emergency, he said.

The labour minister said that industrial units would be able to minimise their material and human losses, including causalities and injuries to labourers with such preventive and safety measures well in place.

He said that factories were required to procure firefighting equipment and where such equipment were already present, they should remain in working condition and at standby for use in an emergency.
NFEH President Muhammad Naeem Qureshi said that frequent incidents in commercial, industrial, and residential buildings in Karachi had caused a seriously alarming situation for the government and other city authorities concerned.



Such incidents cause human losses and damage to infrastructure and goods, amounting to a loss of several millions of rupees, he said.