staff reporter
The Director-General Punjab Emergency Service, Dr. Rizwan Naseer has said that Punjab Emergency Service has established the first modern Fire Service in Punjab which has responded to 151,000 fire incidents and saved losses worth over Rs. 450 billion in Punjab by improving response time and professional firefighting on modern lines. He said, even if we establish the best Fire Service in the world it can’t be effective if each time Fire Vehicle has to go for refilling from various water filling points in the city in this traffic rush.
DG Rescue expressed these views with business owners in an awareness session regarding Fire Safety Measures in multistory and commercial buildings at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, here on Saturday.
The awareness session was organized by LCC&I and was attended by the President LCC&I Mian Tariq Misbah, Vice President, Tahir Manzoor Chaudhary and owners & businessmen from Lahore. DG Rescue was accompanied by a technical team consisting of officers from Rescue Headquarters, Academy, and District Lahore.
DG Rescue Punjab appealed to members of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry to install pillar type external fire hydrants of 2.5 inch diameters with two outlets (not more than 100 feet apart) at the corner of each building which must be linked directly to the main water supply of the building. It should be checked daily to ensure the availability of water by the management of the building/industry essential for effective fire-fighting he added. He also requested them to ensure implementation of Fire Safety Codes as notified in the building bye-laws to save precious lives and business.
Dr Rizwan Naseer ensured that Rescue 1122 to provide free of cost training to staff of commercial buildings and services. He also said that owners of industries and commercial buildings should realize the significance of fire safety which can save the building from significant loss due to fire and collective efforts for implementation of building bye-laws, Fire Safety Codes of Pakistan can reduce the increasing number of emergencies in the Country.
President LCC&I ensured that with the help of the Government of Punjab and Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) all commercial and high-rise buildings. He would try to install External Fire Hydrants and ask the business community to also ensure fire safety measures as given in the building codes to avoid risking their precious lives and businesses. Dr. Rizwan asked the members of the Chamber to ensure the installation of external fire hydrants in multistory buildings and industries by 30th November 2020.
