KMC’s fire dept refuses to extinguish fire due to ongoing strike

The Pakistan Navy’s firefighters extinguished a fire which broke out at an office of a private company in Muhammad Ali Housing Society on Wednesday as the Karachi Metropolitan Cooperation’s fire department refused to participate in the fire extinguishing work due to an ongoing strike.

The fire brigade department of the KMC was informed about the incident that took place at the Lucky Cement’s office, but they refused to send fire tenders.

Upon their refusal, the Pakistan Navy sent three fire tenders to douse the blaze. The office staff walked out of the office before the arrival of the fire tenders. No loss of life was reported but the infrastructure of the office was damaged by the fire.

According to a spokesperson for the KMC’s fire brigade department, over 1,400 employees of the department posted to 24 fire stations across the city went on strike on Thursday morning, halting the operations. “We have stopped operations across the city since our demands are not fulfilled.”

“We are not being paid our fire risk allowances from eighteen months. Ignorance of the authorities had forced us to go on strike and halt the operations,” the spokesperson added. The department had only participated in two operations in Liaquatabad and Gulshan-e-Iqbal since Thursday night. “We have only stopped commercial operations like fire incidents at offices and factories but we are responding to residential incidents as the lives of families, including children and women, are on risk in such incidents,” he said. “The strike will remain continue until the authorities pay us our fire risk allowances.”