LAHORE: The Emergency Services Department remembered the victims of Baldia Town, Karachi, and Bund Road, Lahore Factory fires, as both fire incidents in Lahore and Karachi were like 9/11 of Pakistan, in which 314 people lost their lives.
In this regard, a special meeting was organized at Emergency Services Academy in remembrance of the victims of twin fire emergencies of Lahore, Karachi. One minute silence was observed and special prayers were offered to pay tribute to the victims.
The Secretary Emergency Services Department, Dr Rizwan Naseer stated that both the incidents are 9/11 of Pakistan when around 300 lives were lost in back-to-back incidents of fire at Baldia Town Karachi Garment fire and Bund Road Lahore Factory fire. He said that Fire Service of Rescue 1122 has saved losses worth over Rs685 billion by responding to over 243,870 fire incidents across the province through timely & professional firefighting.
According to him, the Punjab Emergency Service Department has established a modern Fire Service in all districts of Punjab and the Service is continuously organizing fire safety awareness and training to the owners/ employees of high rise/ high-risk buildings so that preventive measures of building safety as per building bylaws may be implemented which shall ultimately reduce the number of fire emergencies. But there is a dire need to implement Building Safety Regulation 2022 if we want to prevent these emergencies in the future, he added.
Dr Rizwan Naseer appealed the business community and high rise building owners to ensure the implementation of Building Safety Regulation 2022 and do not risk their lives and investment to save a small amount spent on the installation of fire safety provisions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024