KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — More than 70 per cent of the roughly 1,900 buildings audited for fire safety in Karachi between January and November failed to meet the required standards, Rescue 1122’s chief operating officer, Abid Jalal, said on Thursday.
Jalal gave the figure at the fourth National Fire Safety Conference, organised by the Fire Protection Association of Pakistan. Karachi’s chief fire officer, Humayun Khan, told the same conference that the city had recorded about 160 fires in the previous two weeks alone. Jalal called for the 2016 building code to be reviewed and for a separate technical authority to inspect buildings and enforce fire standards.
Khan said narrow roads, encroachments and late reporting were the biggest obstacles for firefighters. Referring to the Gul Plaza fire, he said the Central Fire Station learned of the blaze about 26 minutes after it began, even though videos of it were already circulating on social media. Karachi now has 28 fire stations, up from 22, with eight snorkel vehicles and 52 water bowsers, he said.
What to check in your building: Kanwar Waseem, president of the Fire Protection Association of Pakistan, said every building should have working fire alarms, sprinklers, firefighting equipment and properly maintained emergency exits, and that residents should be trained to respond before the fire brigade arrives. In practice, that means knowing where the nearest extinguisher is and whether it has been serviced, making sure stairwells and exits are never locked or used for storage, asking your building’s management or residents’ union when the last fire inspection was done, and reporting overloaded sockets and loose wiring.
If a fire starts: call for help first and film later. Ring Rescue 1122 on 1122 or the fire brigade on 16. Do not pour water on burning oil or an electrical fire, Fawad Bari, chief executive of Hussain Habib, warned at the conference; use the right extinguisher, and switch off the electricity if it is safe to do so. Leave by the stairs, not the lift.
Javed Bilwani, a former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said several industrial zones and business districts, including McLeod Road, still lack a proper network of fire hydrants. Khan called for practical fire safety training, including basic firefighting and safe evacuation, in schools, colleges and universities.
