KARACHI, Dec 28: In addition to adequate medical emergency response, if Karachi were to be the target of a major terrorist strike, its security apparatus and fire department would have a major role to play in securing the site, capturing any criminals and making sure that damage is minimised.
Karachi’s security forces consist primarily of the police and the paramilitary Rangers force, both of whom are confident that they would be able to deal with any eventuality, though analysts believe otherwise. It has also emerged that the fire department is ill equipped to deal with even two major fires, were they to occur simultaneously.
Reaction times are critical when it comes to emergency response, and security analyst Ikram Sehgal believes that response times in Karachi would be shorter than they were in Mumbai on Nov 26, as Karachi has a higher police/Rangers presence. “I don’t think we are prepared in the classic sense, though,” he adds, saying that if terrorist outfits really “put their minds to it”, there would be little protection.
“We have learnt from the mistakes of Mumbai,” says Capital City Police Officer Wasim Ahmed, “and we do not want to repeat them.”
Speaking to Dawn, Mr Ahmed said that the response time of Karachi’s police would be much shorter than that of Mumbai’s authorities. “Following the Mumbai attacks, we upgraded our systems and trained our personnel to deal with such situations.” He added that Rs1 billion has been invested for financial year 08/09 to implement a comprehensive surveillance camera system and emergency control room.
The police have now also procured building plans of major structures in Karachi, to be used in case of urban assaults. Mr Sehgal, the security analyst, however, is unconvinced by the Karachi police’s preparedness, saying that police personnel do not have enough training or experience with such situations.
‘Three tiered-response system’
“There is a three-tiered system in place in terms of response,” said the CCPO. “If the police respond to a situation and see that more help is required, the Rangers will be called in. And then, if further help is required, the provincial government will put in a written request for the army to be deployed.”
The Rangers force does not directly fall under the purview of either the city or provincial governments. Rather, this force operates under direct orders from the federal interior ministry. Under normal circumstances, the Rangers act only when instructed to do so by the ministry or through a requisition from the city or provincial authorities.
“In emergency situations, however, we don’t wait for black and white orders to come through. We act as and when necessary,” said a Rangers officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The officer asserted that Rangers personnel are highly trained in close quarters battle and urban assaults, and would be well equipped to deal with any threats. He said the Rangers have their own standard operating procedures for these situations, pointing out that ‘quick reaction forces’ are assigned to every unit, so that emergencies may be dealt with swiftly.
Fire department ill-equipped
In addition to catching the criminals and safeguarding the lives and properties of citizens, the authorities would also need to respond to any sort of fire caused by an attack. But Karachi’s fire department, operated by the city district government, is understaffed, does not have enough equipment or stations, and suffers from a lack of co-ordination with other firefighting services in the city, Dawn has learnt.
There are currently 22 fire stations, 50 fire tenders (including 36 refurbished vehicles and five brand new ones) and approximately 700 firemen working with the fire department.
“If you consider all of Karachi, we need at least 186 fire stations and about 400-500 fire tenders,” says EDO municipal services Masood Alam, under whose department the fire department falls. “The problem is that each of the 13 stakeholders of this city has their own firefighting system, and some (significantly including the industrial estates) don’t have any. We should blend our resources. Right now the CDGK service is sufficient for the parts of Karachi which fall under it, approximately 35 per cent of the total area,” he said.
Mr Alam says that if three class III fires were to break out simultaneously, the fire department would be able to control one, while citizens would have to control the other. The third, he said, would likely have to be left to burn itself out. He asserted, however, that if a fire at the level of the Marriott bombing in Islamabad happened in Karachi and there were no other simultaneous emergencies, then the fire department would be able to control the blaze. “The problem,” he said, “arises when we have multiple large fires at different locations.”
Currently, the standard operating procedures for emergency response for the fire department is to have initial calls routed through a main control room, from where fire tenders and rescue vehicles are dispatched from the nearest fire station to the blaze. The fire department may be called by citizens, the police, or even the Rangers or army.
‘Lack of fire safety awareness’
Mr Alam complained of a lack of awareness on the part of citizens. He says that fire trucks are usually deployed within three minutes of the initial alarm, but are often delayed in traffic, where motorists do not give the trucks sufficient room.
He also says that people need to be more aware of fire safety and prevention, and basic firefighting i.e. the use of a fire extinguisher.
This is a sentiment echoed by Tariq Moin of the Fire Protection Association, an NGO that works to increase awareness and implement fire prevention measures. He says that citizens need to be trained in the basics of fire safety in order to help contain fires as and when they happen. The case of the Marriott bombing in Islamabad springs to mind, where a policeman at the gate aimed his fire extinguisher outside the windscreen of the dumper which eventually exploded.
Sources in the fire department, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that it’s not just citizens who need training. “They [firefighters] need better training, facilities and equipment. Right now their performance is good, but they need to be much more highly trained in various firefighting and rescue techniques.”
Currently, Karachi’s firefighters are trained at the Civil Defence Academy, but a new Urban Search and Rescue Academy is being set up near the Super Highway. Built with input from foreign consultants and help from the National Disaster Management Authority, the new academy aims to provide world-class emergency response training to firefighters and other first responders. The CDGK plans to have that facility operational by March 31, 2009.
“Eventually,” says Mr Alam, “we want to have an ambulance, a rescue vehicle and a fire tender sent out as one unit to every emergency. That is the ultimate goal of the city nazim.”
The third and final part of this series will deal with issues of coordination when it comes to the emergency response protocols of the authorities in Karachi.
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