Govt to provide fire tenders to all industrial zones in Sindh

Keeping in view the frequent fire incidents in factories and warehouses in Karachi, the Sindh government has decided to immediately provide state-of-the-art fire engines to all industrial zones of the province.

This decision would help the provincial government prevent financial losses caused to industrialists and casualties of industrial workers in case of any fire emergency, said Information, Labour and Transport Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Friday. 

Chairing a meeting with a delegation of the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) in his office, he said that every industrial zone would be fully responsible for the repair and maintenance of fire tenders to be handed over to them by the government.

The minister said all factories were required to train their staff and provide them with necessary equipment to carry out in-house firefighting operations on an urgent basis. He said the mere provision of fire tenders to the industrial zones would not provide a complete solution to the problem.

He emphasised that the factories were also under an obligation to take all safety and precautionary measures to deal with any fire emergency. Shah further stated that the industrial units would be able to minimise their material and human losses with such preventive and safety measures in place.

The factories were required to procure firefighting equipment, and where such equipment was already present, it should remain in a working condition so it could be readily used, he added. He was of the view that industrialists and labourers were the integral parts of the system, whose vibrant working would ensure strengthening of the national economy.

He said that it was the directives of both the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and the Sindh chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, to provide all the required facilities, privileges and infrastructure to labourers and industrialists.

The minister claimed that the PPP had always safeguarded the interests of labourers, but at the same time it had never ignored the industrialists as the presence of both were necessary for each other’s well-being and socio-economic survival.

He said that provincial government was highly alert to the latest incidents where fires occurred in quick succession at industries and warehouses in the city. He said that due preventive and safety measures, if taken by industrialists, would serve as the very effective first line of defence against such fire emergency situations at the factories.

Shah was of the viewpoint that both the industrialists and government were required to adopt a joint, concrete and comprehensive strategy to keep industrial and human losses minimal in fire and other emergency situations.

Speaking on the occasion, NFEH President Mohammad 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 concerned authorities of the city.

He said that such incidents caused human losses and damage to infrastructure and goods, amounting to millions of rupees. Qureshi used the occasion to formally invite the minister to attend as chief guest the upcoming 7th International Fire and Safety Conference to be held on October 17.  The conference is meant to promote public awareness about the effective measures and latest equipment and technology required to tackle and prevent any fire emergency.