The Punjab government has made the installation of fire hydrants mandatory for high rise commercial buildings across the province including Lahore after the Hafeez Centre tragedy that caused millions of rupees losses to traders.
The Punjab Emergency Council (PEC) approved it in its 6th meeting and stated that from now onwards installation of fire hydrants is must for commercial buildings.
“Fire hydrants will have to be installed inside and outside new commercial buildings across Punjab, including Lahore and without fire hydrants, building plans will not be approved,” the officials said.
They said that fire hydrants will help rescue teams to timely extinguish fire incidents. The officials said even before this order, installation of fire hydrants was conditional to construct high-rise commercial buildings but the order has not been implemented.
It is pertinent to note that firefighters extinguished the flames inside the Hafeez Centre electronic market last week’s Monday after several hours the inferno destroyed merchandise worth millions. The Lahore commissioner had constituted a 14-member committee to investigate the incident.
