Mayor stresses need to upgrade fire brigade

The fire brigade of the Karachi Municipal Corporation should possess state-of-the-art equipment so that it can extinguish blazes in the least possible time.

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar said this on Monday while presiding over a meeting on the provision of modern equipment to the fire brigade. The mayor stressed the need for building the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s fire brigade on modern lines so that it can effectively control the situation in case a fire breaks out anywhere.

The meeting was attended by Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Saif ur Rehman, Director Municipal Service Nauman Arshad, Director Technical to Mayor SM Shakaib, Chief Fire Officer Tehsin Ahmed, Director Vehicle Fareed Tajik and other officers.

The mayor asserted that fire brigade was an important department and an effective fire brigade was necessary in a metropolis like Karachi where high-rise buildings and industrial zones were located. He claimed that all necessary actions were being taken to improve the performance of fire brigade.

The fire brigade is considered one of the main departments of municipal corporations all over the world, Akhtar said.

Delivering a presentation, the chief marketing officer of a local firm, Rashid Alam, said a new device, ice ball, was being introduced for the first time in Pakistan for putting out fire, which was used in various countries around the world.

The new device would start working in five seconds and it could douse fire in plastic, petrol, gas, oil and chemicals, the meeting was told. The device could also deal with a fire which erupted due to a short circuit.