After PM’s notice CDA, IWMB firefighters make extra efforts to extinguish fire
Zubair Qureshi
After hectic efforts by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) the fires over Margalla Hills that started Sunday were put out and it took the firefighters almost seven hours to completely bring it under control.
The CDA and the IWMB joint efforts were multiplied when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took notice and directed the authority to submit a report in this regard.
According to details, the fire broke out at about 2.30 p.m. Sunday and lasted for seven hours however, thanks to the IWMB staff and the CDA firefighters who despite being poorly equipped and lacking in modern machinery overpowered the flames that were burning the dry grass over Margalla Hills at Kot Janan right behind the D-12 sector causing huge loss to the plantation and the forest life.
CDA spokesperson in a statement said the CDA firefighters despite difficult terrain and gusty winds kept fighting till the fire was completely subdued.
About the burning trees that can still be seen, he said they are not the ‘burning’ trees and branches but the ambers and that will die down automatically. As per our report, fire is no more there; it has been completely extinguished.
Meanwhile, Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman in a statement said it was the bush fires that erupted in the Margalla Hills at the boundary area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Islamabad and has been controlled but it rekindled due to hot high speed winds.
Chairperson IWMB Rina S Khan while talking to Pakistan Observer said bush fire over Margallas was on a smaller scale. The real and potential threat is fires in the KP section of the hills.
We should investigate why it is recurring in KP and what efforts are being put in to control and address them once for all, she said. About the IWMB staff, she said they also participated in the firefighting operation along with CDA. “We have a shared fire plan and carried it out at Kot Janan last (Sunday) night,” she said. About the scale of loss, she said we would share once the ground report is finalized. However, she said CDA took the lead in the operation and would also investigate the cause of fires.
