Why are fire incidents on the rise in Karachi?

Karachi: In the first ten months of this year, 1,770 fire incidents were reported while in 2019, 2,639 fire incidents were reported.

Between January 2019 and December, the highest incidence was 293 in December, 266 in March and 255 in November. Last year, the station topped the list with 305 incidents.

According to the fire department’s statistics for the current year, there were 260 incidents in February, 246 in January, and 228 in October.

This year too, the President’s Station topped the list with 196 incidents. 176 fire incidents took place in Gulshan-e-Mustafa fire station and 168 in Nazimabad.

According to fire brigade officials, dry weather and low humidity are one of the reasons for the increase in fires in the city. Experts say negligence is also a major cause of arson.

Officials say do not use faulty materials in gas wiring and be careful when burning heaters.

In the event of a fire in a high-rise building, the fire department has only two snorkels. Out of 1353 posts in KMC Fire Brigade, 263 posts are vacant. These include six posts of station officer and seven posts of sub-fire officer.

One of the reasons for the fire is that no safety measures are taken in large buildings. There are several high-rise buildings in Karachi that do not have fire extinguishers or fire brigade vehicles.

KMC has a total of 24 fire stations out of which only 10 are operational. Sometimes it is necessary to seek help from the Pakistan Navy.