KARACHI, May 9: A centralized fire emergency helpline “Fire-16” started functioning round-the-clock from Monday. Housed in the basement of the Central Fire Station, the fire control room would be formally inaugurated at a later stage, but it has resumed operations from Monday, Chief Fire Officer Kazim Ali said.

In the past, “16” used to connect the concerned fire station of the area, now the toll free number can also be dialled from the cell phone which would connect to the centralized fire emergency helpline, he said.

Kazim Ali said that the setup would be soon upgraded and recording arrangement for all the income calls would be made in order to keep a check and maintain a record. He reiterated that the present setup was in its preliminary stage and soon the entire setup would be upgraded.

The fire staff appealed to citizens to use this emergency helpline wisely by calling it only in case of real fire emergency. “It is our first day of centralized operations and we have been receiving a number of dump calls from cell phones,” complained Deputy Chief Fire Officer Naeem Yousaf.

Fire Officer Shahid Ali has been appointed as in charge of the control room.

The work of centralizing the fire helpline was done on war footings after the April 29th fire incident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal in which an eight member family died inside an apartment.