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Tuesday March 19, 2024

KP Rescue 1122 has provided services in 310,000 emergencies so far

By Bureau report
February 18, 2020

PESHAWAR: Apart from rescuing victims of terrorism and other incidents, the Rescue 1122 has provided services to public in around 3,10,000 incidents including 2,12,000 medical emergencies in the last few years.

Besides, the fire brigade and the divers of the service have saved hundreds of lives and properties worth billions in different parts of the province. In some of the incidents, the rescuers went beyond their duty to help the victims while even risking their lives. However, there were hardly few occasions that the services and sacrifices of the rescuers were acknowledged properly.

The Rescue 1122 has recently extended its services to the Khyber district by setting up the first station in the erstwhile Fata. Around 20 stations will be set up in rest of the merged districts in coming months while the services will also be extended to other districts of the province soon.

“The Rescue 1122 has so far provided services in 3,10,000 emergencies since its launching in 2010. Out of these, 70 per cent or over 2,12,000 are medical emergencies in which our ambulances shifted the victims to hospital to save their lives,” said Khatir Ahmad, the director general of the Rescue 1122.

He added that the ambulances of the service were fully equipped as per international standards to save lives of those being transported to hospital. The ambulances are stationed in every district at places from where they can rush to any call of emergency within five to seven minutes, he informed, adding that the services of the Rescue 1122 had been extended to more districts of KP as well as newly merged districts in the last few months. “The water rescue teams of the Rescue 1122 have so far carried out 990 operations since 2010 and saved lives or recovered bodies of 1180 people who drowned at different tourist spots or other places,” said Khatir Ahmad.

The official added that over 400,000 students of colleges, universities and schools had been imparted training how to save lives in case of any emergency. The fire brigade of the service, he said, had recently got all-terrain vehicles that can extinguish fire in places where other vehicles cannot reach. “Apart from emergencies, the Rescue 1122 provides services in case of injuries in different incidents, heatstroke, deliveries, high fever, blood pressure or diabetes and other medical emergencies to save life of a common man and woman,” spokesman for the Rescue 1122 Bilal Ahmad Faizi said. He said that the worst thing the Rescue 1122 facing was the large number of prank calls.

According to the data of the Rescue 1122 headquarters in Peshawar, 15,53585 calls received by the control room from January 1 till August 31, 2019 were either fake, irrelevant or it dropped. Out of these calls, 779336 were from Peshawar, followed by 248949 from Dera Ismail Khan, 147989 from Nowshera and 97569 from Abbbottabad districts. The lowest number of fake calls during the year was 7718 from Mardan.