Commissioner looks to improve mechanism for firefighting

Karachi
A proposal will be sent to the prime minister with a request to order federal government to pool its resources with the Sindh government to provide the city’s fire fighting department adequate machinery and equipment.
This was said by Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui on Wednesday while speaking as a chief guest at the 5th Fire & Safety Convention and Awards organised by the National Forum for Environment and Health.
He called on all the relevant federal and provincial government agencies, besides corporate bodies, to spare a sizeable portion of their budgets on regular basis buying equipment and machinery for tackling emergency situation in the city.
On the occasion, he pointedly requested Nehal Hashmi, a Karachi-based senator of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), to present the commissioner’s proposal to the prime minister to improve fire safety in Karachi.
Acknowledging the efforts of Sindh government for boosting the fire safety mechanisms in the city, he said it was not enough. “The city has witnessed phenomenal growth, both horizontally and vertically, there is a dire by the federal and provincial governments to pool their resources to equip Karachi fire-fighting department,” he said.
The commissioner said the city administration had been trying to sensitise all the relevant land-owning and municipal agencies for sparing resources and funds for fire fighting and disaster management.
For the same purpose, he said, a centralised emergency helpline service — 1299 — had been launched at his office on the impetus of Sindh government. He urged all planning and development agencies and bodies of the city to take full stock of emergency measures.
Responding to the commissioner’s request, Senator Nehal Hashmi asked public and private sector organisations to send him proposals so he could introduce a bill for enacting fire safety laws in the parliament.
He said the federal and provincial governments had resolved to work together and asked the people of Karachi to vote with complete independence for the candidate of their choice in the upcoming local bodies elections.
He said if the best candidates were elected for leading positions in the city’s municipal agencies in the approaching local bodies polls, most of the major problems being faced by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and similar agencies such as non-payment of salaries and ghost employees will be automatically sorted out.
Also speaking on the occasion, KMC’s metropolitan commissioner Masood Alam said the agency had been managing its fire fighting department in a “highly undesirable state” and even found it difficult to regularly pay salaries to the employed fire fighters who were understaffed.
He advised the district municipal corporations to gather their own resources to buy fire fighting equipment and machinery.
Referring to the tragic Baldia factory fire, the fire chief of Karachi Port Trust, Saeed Jadoon, said a student passing by the site had informed him about the fire.
“That student was real hero otherwise more lives could have been lost,” he said. “When I called the city fire chief he had been unaware of it and then began preparing rescue efforts.”
He said the KPT and other agencies helped provide seawater to extinguish the fire. “We have an unlimited quantity of seawater which can be used to extinguish fires in any part of the city or at least in areas near the shore,” he said. “The KPT also has a pipeline supply in old city areas for such emergencies. Till many years ago there used to be regular drills but people used to think that roads were being washed.”
The president of Fire Protection Association of Pakistan, Farhat Hussain, stressed putting in and upgrading fire protection systems in every building and devising fire safety laws to make their implementation mandatory.
The president of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Iftikhar Vohra, said the city had witnessed unfortunate incidents resulting in huge loss of lives and property.
“After the Bolton market fire, industrialists spared Rs1.4 rupees and gave it to the Sindh government for purchasing new fire tenders,” he said. “However, since then there has been no progress on the matter. The government should increase fire tenders immediately to be able to cope with such incidents in the future.”
He said Karachi needed around 200 fire stations but only 16 were functioning at the present. “Even out of these 16 fire stations, the vehicles do not have diesel, have leaked pipes and are without a supply of water,” he added.