ISLAMABAD: A fire erupted in a furniture shop in a building used for residential and commercial purposes in Chah Sultan on Thursday in which seven of a family were trapped for three hours before they were rescued by firefighters.

On Wednesday, a fire had started in a wood godown in a residential area of Judicial Colony along the Islamabad Expressway.

Though no lives were lost in the fires, both incidents serve to make a case against the performance of the district administration, Civil Defence and the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and the lack of effort on the part of these institutions in implementing bylaws and fire safety measures and for regulating commercial activities.

Civil Defence is responsible for ensuring commercial activities are not conducted in residential areas and that commercial outlets, including furniture shops and godowns, adopt fire safety measures, but its efforts have so far been limited to the issuing of notices to owners of commercial buildings, advising them to adopt fire safety measures.

Both the district administration and RMC have not taken notice of the fire incidents and have not been monitoring the work being done in this regard since the change in the local government system, though rescue operation is still under the control of district administration.

A senior district administration official told Dawn that a survey was conducted in Rawalpindi city in 2013 in which it was found that more than 175 small factories in residential areas and over 500 shops deal in inflammable material such as various chemicals and wood products.

He said the godowns set up in the lanes of Raja Bazaar and adjoining areas, including Mohanpura, Naya Mohallah, Chittian Hattian, Akalgarh, Kashmiri Bazaar, Bagh Sardaran, Dhoke Dalal, Pirwadhai, Hazara Colony and Fauji Colony, had not adopted fire safety measures.

“Fiber glass, plastic utensils, shoes and shopping bags are made in residential areas of which the administration does not take notice due to pressure by local politicians,” he explained.

He said the now defunct City District Government Rawalpindi had decided to move small factories and other commercial outlets to outside of the city but was stopped by local PML-N leaders as the move would have caused them problems during elections.

“The campaign was not launched during the local government elections and now union council chairmen in the RMC will not allow for commercial activities of their voters and supporters to be disturbed,” he added.

District Officer Emergency Dr Abdul Rehman told Dawn it was the RMC’s duty to ensure buildings have fire exits and safety measures in place because building plans have to be approved first.

He said it was not the duty of Rescue 1122 to ensure that fire safety measures are in place in commercial buildings.

“The Civil Defence department is responsible for measures in highrise buildings and commercial outlets and markets and the RMC should help the department in this,” he added.

RMC Chief Municipal Officer Khalid Goraya said the corporation had been asked to issue notices to all commercial buildings in residential areas, asking them to move.

He said building bylaws were being revived so the building department will take notice of the absence of fire safety measures.

“Elected RMC members will be contacted soon to start action against illegal commercial activities in the city areas and the resolution will be forwarded to the house in the next session,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2017