An absence of safety

Until safety legislation is enforced & building codes are observed, fires are going to occur at regular intervals

Two large fires within days of one another, one in Lahore where there were 13 fatalities and one in Karachi where fortunately nobody died, have the same root cause. The absence of a culture of safety. Safety is only built in to buildings or operations run by multinationals or entities such as international NGOs and UN agencies. These have their origins in places usually far away where safety cultures are long established, and they carry best-practice with them wherever in the world they go. No such sense of responsibility is visible anywhere in Pakistan. Multistorey structures go up with inadequate fire control or escape measures. Buildings are constructed that impede access, narrow the roads and in the event of a fire — as in Lahore on December 29 — hinder fire and rescue services in getting to the site of the fire. Where safety measures are incorporated, they are rarely properly serviced; and in the case of fire-exits, they have been found to be bolted or chained after more than one fatal fire in recent years.

Safety legislation does exist, and there are inspectors to oversee safety in the workplace, but they are often rendered ineffective by threats or bribery — or the intervention of ‘influentials’. The Lahore fire was probably started by an electrical short circuit — so was the fire in the Karachi timber-yards. Rescue 1122 responded promptly only to find that there was a single access/entry point to the market and encroachments made a rapid intervention impossible. Crowds of onlookers got in the way of rescue vehicles and the police clearly have much to learn about the management of crowds in such circumstances. There have been the usual demands for urgent reports on the incident, and reports there will be — which will promptly be filed in the waste basket. Until safety legislation is enforced and until building codes are observed and until encroachments everywhere are decisively tackled, then fires and fatalities are going to occur at regular intervals. As matters stand, safety is a low priority everywhere. Expect no early change.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2014.

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