79 people die in fire accidents in 2020

PES cites short circuit as leading cause of fires

LAHORE:

Rescue 1122 yearly report on fire emergencies pointed out that 79 people died in 15,590 fire incidents across Punjab during 2020, Punjab Emergency Service (PES) Head of Operations Ayaz Aslam revealed.

The statistics were disclosed during an annual performance review meeting of Fire Emergency Response held at the Rescue Headquarters on Wednesday.

The meeting was chaired by Rescue 1122 Director General Rizwan Naseer and attended by senior rescue officers.

“In 2020, as many as 43 fire incidents were reported daily on average throughout the province,” Ayaz highlighted.

“The data further shows that the leading cause of fire incidents was short circuiting. At least 7,348 fire emergencies dealt by the rescue service during last year were triggered by short circuits,” he added.

It was further noted that 1,009 emergencies occurred due to gas leakage, 3,201 owing to negligence/ smoking, 41 because of lit candles and 103 were caused by LPG cylinder blasts.

Other emergencies included 139 kitchen fires and 136 forest fires whereas 1,129 blazes occurred due to unknown reasons.

The report also suggests that as many as 2,484 fire incidents happened because of multiple triggers.

According to the official statistics, the majority of fire incidents occurred in major districts: 3,460 incidents in Lahore, 1,531 in Faisalabad, 1,115 in Rawalpindi and 914 in Multan.

Rescue 1122 DG Rizwan Naseer noted that compared to 2019 a decrease of 2,789 fire emergencies was noted in the following year.

He emphasized on implementation of the Building Code of Pakistan’s Fire Safety Provisions 2016 to reduce the incidence of fires.

It is worth mentioning that the building bye-laws enacted in 2016 applied to both new and existing buildings. The latter were instructed to ensure safety within a period of three years after the promulgation of the law to avoid penalties.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2021.