Fire safety: Commission, LDA review measures at high-rise buildings

Safety measures at city’s five tallest buildings assessed, say LDA officials.

LAHORE:

The Fire Safety Commission met with the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) management on Wednesday to review the implementation of fire safety regulations in high-rise buildings, as ordered by the Lahore High Court.

Chief Town Planner Chaudhry Akram and District Fire Officer Nouman Noor told Commission Chairman Dr Rizwan Naseer, who is also the director general of Rescue 1122, that they had conducted a detailed review of the five tallest buildings in Lahore: the Pace building on Link Road, Siddique Trade Centre, Ashiyana Shopping Centre, Ashrafia Tower and the Savoy Hotel.

Dr Naseer stressed the need to make sure that emergency exits and stairs are in place at all buildings.

LDA Acting Director General Mariyam Kiyani proposed the establishment of a high-rise buildings review committee, consisting of LDA and Rescue 1122 officials and technical experts, to look at the designs for the emergency staircases to be installed at high-rise buildings.

District Emergency Officer Dr Ahmad Raza said that several notices had been published in the press asking high-rise buildings to put emergency exit plans, fire alarms system, fire hose cabinets and fire hydrant systems in place. He said that a list of all buildings with six or more storeys would be submitted to the commission’s secretariat within three days.

LDA Director Brig (retired) Dr Arshad Zia, Assistant Director (Fire) Abrar Hassan, Emergency Officer (Law) Aamir Baloch, EO (Research) Mohsin Durrani and EO Zohaib Asghar also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2013.