On their own: Karachi's firefighters face the heat with meagre resources

 

KARACHI: Walking into burning buildings is not just something heroes do in Hollywood movies.

In Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, firefighters are the real-life heroes who walk into burning buildings every day to save lives, with shoddy safety gear and little promise of any compensation.

The story of the mega city's firefighters is no different than the those of their comrades across the country. 

With delayed salaries and no allowances for months, these brave men still go out every day in a city that has its own fair share of problems which compound firefighting, such as non-implementation of building codes, poor electricity work, shortage of water and lack of public awareness. 

However, when it comes to the city which houses more than twenty million people, as per unofficial estimates, safety isn't exactly top of the line in the metropolitan. 

In Karachi, there are only 20 firetrucks and one snorkel for the entire city.

According to the population of the city and the international standard, there should be at least one fire station and four trucks for every 0.1 million people.

This would require 200 fire stations and 28,800 fire trucks.

 

With a change in weather, there has been an increase in the number of fire incidents in the city.

Just yesterday, seven fires were recorded in the city with 4,048 fire-related incidents taking place last year. 

According to the chief fire officer, it is better to be safe than sorry. 

“In Pakistan, we do not have the culture of having fire extinguishers in homes or in our cars. It is very important to have safety equipment”.

However, he is hopeful about the future of the fire department with the recent allocation of Rs1.72 billion by the government.

With the recent assistance, he hopes to add 50 fire attendees, four snorkelers, safety equipment and better communication devices along with more efficient drivers and firefighters. 

Reporting by Suleman Saadat