Karachi fire station screams for attention

KARACHI: Equipped with only two snorkels that can’t reach high-rise buildings, the Karachi Fire Department (KFD) is indeed, in a deplorable state.

An exceeding number of fire incidents in the metropolis have brought to attention the fire department’s inability to carry out rescue operations properly.

International standards require one model fire station and four fire trucks per 100,000 residents. By this estimate, Karachi requires 200 fire stations and 28,800 firefighting trucks.

Presently, the city has 22 fire stations of which only 11 are functioning. Of the 48 fire trucks, 18 are scrapped while 19 are partially unusable. Failure to renew the maintenance contract due to alleged corruption is told to be the reason behind fire department's deteriorating state.

According to officials, the government is deciding on revamping the department. For this purpose, the vast amount of Rs.57 million was proposed in the Karachi package.

However, despite a change in the government, the department remains critically unequipped and neglected.

A source told Geo News not even half of the 1,200 employees in the department are present on duty. 170 of the firefighting staff are above the age of 50 years, which is in gross defiance of the international standards. Individuals who are not physically fit to perform firefighting duties have been hired as firefighters on the basis of nepotism.

An estimate suggests the city needs 800 fire tenders to cater to its total population. The higher management is currently looking to ground 15 of the available 16 fire tenders.

The department’s inability to extinguish two fire incidents at the same time implores government officials to take notice of the grave situation.

+1