KARACHI, Sept 28: The city government’s civil defence and fire brigade department will soon induct five motorboats into its existing fleet of mechanized vehicles.

The motorboats would be used in rescuing drowning picnickers and deployed along the 37-km-long strait of Hawkesbay beach.

Besides, a well-equipped mobile hydrant having a capacity of 40,000 litres of water will be procured shortly to strengthen the existing fleet of fire-tenders, Shoaib Mohammad Khan, District Officer of the city government’s civil defence and fire brigade department told Dawn.

Tenders for the procurement of the motorboats and mobile hydrant, as well as for jumping sheets, have already been floated. Jumping sheet is an essential item used in rescuing those trapped in a building engulfed in flames. After erecting the sheet, the people trapped in multi-storeyed buildings are advised to jump onto it and the flexible sheet saves them from any serious injury.

Mr Khan said that the PC-1 for acquiring one more snorkel, from the Sindh government’s annual development fund, at an estimated cost of Rs60 million had been prepared and sent to the concerned department.

At present, the civil defence department has only one snorkel having a maximum approach of 103 feet at its disposal. It can have an access up to the 10th floor of a building. The new snorkel specified in the PC-1 has a maximum approach of 137 feet to reach the 13th floor of a building, according to the DO.

Mr Khan criticized the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) for according approval to the master plans of high-rises without ensuring that the concerned builders possessed an NOC from the fire brigade department. He said that the department would issue the NOC only after making sure that building plan provided for fire safety gadgets and emergency exits for the safety and security of people in the face of any emergency situation.

There has been no answer yet to the frequently asked question, put up by concerned citizens, as well as those vulnerable to fire emergencies, that how could the city’s rescue agencies, in an emergency, be able to save hundreds of people if trapped inside the ground-plus-24 building of MCB on I. I. Chundrigar Road or the ground-plus-22 building of Habib Bank Plaza on the same road. The question has been agitating their mind since the city government has received its only snorkel and that too of an accessibility as little as 10 feet.

Former city nazim Niamatullah Khan had at one stage during his tenure suggested that it should have been made mandatory upon all builders to arrange for a snorkel of matching accessibility for each of their projects.

DO Shoaib Mohammad Khan, when asked about the 20 fire-tenders and as many fire ambulances that were to be provided to his department as announced by the Sindh governor last month, said that the DCO had recently approached the governor in this regard, and hoped that the vehicles would soon be inducted. With the acquisition of the vehicles, he added, the strength of the fire-tenders fleet will go up to 64.

Pointing out that a city of 14 million souls has only 20 fire stations, Mr Khan referred to international standards and said that it should have at least one fire station for a population of 100,000. He revealed that his department had planned setting up of four more fire stations – one each underneath the Shaheed-i-Millat Flyover, Shah Faisal Flyover, Lilly Bridge and Sohrab Goth Flyover — whereas tenders had been floated for another one somewhere in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

NEW CENTRE: The civil defence and fire brigade department is setup up an Emergency Rescue Centre (ERS) at Sandspit, DO Shoaib Khan said.