ate one afternoon, a devastating fire erupted on the fourth floor of a bustling office building in Karachi. A faulty electrical panel had produced sparks igniting paper files lying close, quickly sending flames rising through the open office space.

The fire spread rapidly through ceiling ducts and hallways. Thicksmoke soon billowed into stairwells, obscuring escape routes. Despite the efforts by firefighters, three people lost their lives and many were injured. All that was left of the building was a charred, smoldering shell.

The blaze exposed several failures. The building had no functioning fire extinguishers, fire alarms or sprinklers. Fire-resistant doors and escape routes were missing. Basic systems that could have stopped the fire before it became a tragedy simply weren’t there.

By the time the Fire Brigade arrived, the blaze had taken hold, leaving destruction and devastation in its wake. Everything inside was reduced to ashes, highlighting the critical importance of fire alarms and sprinkler systems in detecting and controlling fires before they spread.

This isn’t new learning. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, that started on October 8, 1871, and burnt for two days destroying about 3.3 square miles of the city and left over 100,000 people homeless, the US rewrote its fire safety laws, leading to the creation of the NFPA—now the global gold standard in fire prevention. Pakistan’s 2016 Building Fire Code is based on the same practice, but enforcement remains weak.

Kazim Ali, a former chief fire officer of Karachi and former HOD Quality, Health, Safety, and Environment management at PPL Sui, says reliance on fragmented hydrants and extinguishers is the bane of fire safety across Pakistan.

External firefighting equipment cannot reach upper floors of the high-rise buildings in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. This result in huge losses. Warehouses storing combustible materials like textiles or chemicals worth millions are destroyed in a blaze as they essentially depend on the Fire Brigade, rather than adopting suitable measures to stop a fire in its infancy, he says.

“Lack of awareness and reliance on non-technical consultants focused on cost-cutting result in deployment of hydrants and fire extinguishers instead of a holistic system. This frequently leads to fire safety failures.”

Fire protection works when two disaster prevention systems work together. Passive systems like fire-rated walls and doors hold the fire in. Active ones—alarms, sprinklers, heat detectors—quickly trigger efforts to stop it from spreading. One without the other isn’t enough.

Karachi’s Chief Fire Officer Humayun Khan says fire safety starts at the design and planning stage of a commercial or residential project, where architects prioritise layouts that simplify evacuation and enhance firefighter access. Selection of fire-resistant materials during construction - concrete and intumescent coatings - limit fire damage and prevent building collapse.

External firefighting equipment cannot reach upper floors of the high-rise buildings in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. This results in huge losses. Warehouses storing combustible materials like textiles and chemicals worth millions are destroyed because they essentially depend on the Fire Brigade.

“Heat detectors linked to the fire alarm systems activate localised sprinklers within seconds, dousing the flames before they have a chance to spread.”

Kazim says even if initial suppression fails, passive fire protection systems comprising compartmentationcan confine the fire to a single room or zone. “Fire-resistant construction materials will have kept the building structurally stable, the smoke management systems, including pressurised stairwells and exhaust vents, keeps escape routes clear of deadly smoke reducing inhalation which causes most human casualties. This can mean the difference between life and death.

The country’s Fire Brigades are often fighting blind. They often have no building plans and no direct hydrant access. They have to rely on water bowsers that waste precious minutes. Fires move fast—this system doesn’t. “Sharing and clearing building plans with the Fire Department is a critical part of Fire Fitness Certification globally,” Kazim says.

Currently, the Civil Defence fire fitness certificates address the bare minimum—hydrants and extinguishers, falling short of the comprehensive fire safety standards outlined in the Pakistan Building Fire Code 2016. But only a full-system checked by a qualified officer, as the law provides, can guarantee a building’s safety. The mayor, as the mandated authority, has delegated the certification powers to the chief fire officer, who is technically qualified to assess the entire fire safety mechanism. This alone can ensure that buildings are equipped to contain and control fires effectively and avoiding lossof life and property.

Insurance companies previously offered premium discounts on installation of holistic fire detection and protection systems, but the practice has been discontinued. To encourage compliance with the Pakistan Building Fire Code 2016, insurers should revive and enhance this incentive in line with global best practice, offering tiered discounts for fire safety measures.

Fires happen. But disasters don’t have to. If we enforce Pakistan Building Fire Code 2016, retrofit unsafe buildings and reward safety with insurance incentives, we’ll save lives.

The writer is a senior The News staffer in Karachi