THE agony of the family in Lahore that was struck with tragedy in the early hours of Sunday is unimaginable: six siblings, ranging in age from one-and-a-half to 12 years, were killed whilst asleep when a fire erupted in their house.

According to initial investigations, there was a short circuit in the air-conditioning unit in one of the rooms occupied by three of the children; the fire spread quickly, presumably due to extensive woodwork, and smoke soon engulfed the room in which the other three were sleeping as well.

No doubt some time was lost before the event came to the notice of area residents; unfortunately enough, the children’s parents had left them alone in the house to visit the shrine of Data Darbar.

Once neighbours managed to notify Rescue 1122 and the fire brigade arrived, it seems that matters had already progressed too far. Though the fire was rapidly brought under control, a city government official told the media that by the time the fire services started their work, the flames had already expanded far too much to leave a possibility of saving the children.

Also read: Initial report shows fire brigade was ‘push-start’ vehicle

As is usual, an inquiry has been ordered. Following the tragedy, some of the people of the Shadbagh locality where it occurred alleged that the fire brigade had arrived late and, in addition, that some of the workers had shown inefficiency by failing to open the nozzles on the water pipe and requesting onlookers to bring buckets of water.

These allegations will have to be checked and if such failures are found, strict disciplinary action needs to be taken. This much is already clear, though: the fire brigade vehicle that went to the scene was not in fit condition, and required being pushed to make it start.

How much time was lost because of this detail needs to be investigated. The reality is, unfortunately, that incidents such as this occur with distressing regularity but few lessons are learned by either city administrations or, indeed, the people themselves.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play