KARACHI, Feb 20: The seventh largest city of the world, Karachi, has no proper disaster management infrastructure and it urgently needs at least 100 new fire stations, says the Pakistan Medical Association.

PMA Karachi General Secretary Dr Qaiser Sajjad on Tuesday said the fire in the PNSC building once again exposed our lack of planning and coordination to cope with such disasters. He said though the PNSC building inferno was not the first incident of its kind, the administration at federal, provincial and city government levels were not ready to pay heed in this regard.

He said, “We do not have proper equipment or trained staff to deal with emergency like fires, major rains or earthquakes. Billions of rupees are being spent on erecting highrises and other such structures in the city, which have just one snorkel.”

According to a survey, more than 10,000 five-storied plus high-rise structures are there in Karachi, but there is no proper mechanism to save lives and properties of their residents in case of a fire or other disaster.

The general secretary said, “How a lone snorkel could cater needs of this sprawling city was best known to our visionary city bosses.”

In 1947 when the population of Karachi was just 300,000 it had two big and one small fire stations. He regretted that the city at present with a population of 14 million plus had only 20 fire stations. He said it was learnt that four fire brigades close their doors after 4pm. Besides opening 100 new fire stations, he said proper training of fire fighters and equipping them with modern gadget was also a must.

He said majority of our highrises had no in-built provision for fire-fighting and other disasters.

He demanded that the KBCA and other relevant agencies carry out a survey of each and every five-storied plus building in the city regarding facilities to cope with disasters. He said safety of life and property of citizens was a constitutional responsibility of the government and no compromise be made in this regard.

He urged the city government to invest more in fire fighting services and provide the city fire tenders, snorkels and fire stations to meet the demands of this metropolis.—PPI