Fire broke out in a car parked outside the Eidgah Road near the Islamia College for Women in the jurisdiction of the Gulberg Police Station on Sunday which spread to two other vehicles and then to a garment factory.
No casualties were reported in the incident though the cars were badly burnt.
Rescue teams extinguished fire in the cars and in the factory. The cause of the fire in the first car was said to be a spark in its battery.
The rescue teams reached the spot as fast as they could despite the traffic rush.
A large number of people flocked to the scene of the fire.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident fire broke out at another garment factory on Juranwala Road due to a short circuit at 2:15pm.
The fire burnt a large quantity of garments in the factory which is spread over four kanals of land.
Flames reached the sky. Ten vehicles of Rescue 1122 led by District Emergency Officer Ehtesham Wahla participated in the rescue work. The fire, which lasted seven hours, burnt clothes and other items.
The Punjab Chief Minister, Usman Buzdar, took notice of the fire incidents and ordered reports from the officers concerned.
The chief minister directed the officers of the district administration to be present on the spot to monitor the rescue activities and ordered an inquiry into the incidents.
Earlier this year, the annual Rescue 1122 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.
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 last year were triggered by short circuits,” he added.
It was further noted that 1,009 emergencies occurred due to gas leakages, 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 incidents of fire.
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, November 22nd, 2021.
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