IMPLEMENTATION OF FIRE SAFETY CODES ENSURES SAFETY OF HUMAN LIVES: DR. RIZWAN NASSER

Lahore: The Director General, Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) Dr. Rizwan Naseer congratulated the Fire Rescuers & Dert Rescuers for saving losses worth over Rs 170 billion through timely & professional fire fighting while responding to over 60000 fire incidents in all 36 Districts of Punjab. He expressed these views while addressing to the passing out ceremony of advanced Refresher Training Course for FRs and DRs at Emergency Services Academy on Saturday. They were provided advanced training and practical skills to dealing with complex emergencies, resulting from poor implementation of fire and life safety codes. He further said that if Fire & Life Safety Codes are not implemented properly, then these buildings shall become potential disasters in future.

He said that there was a dire need to ensure implementation of Fire & Life Safety Codes to prevent fire incidents like Baldia Town Garment Factor Fire in Karachi and LDA Plaza Fire in Lahore. In this regard, he directed the District Emergency Officers (DEOs) to ensure District Fire Safety Management through regular fire & rescue drills of FRs/ DRs, safety audit/ survey and drills, in all schools; colleges, high rise buildings, plazas, industry, etc training of general public in life saving skills and daily signing of properly filled fire incident report. He further said that these courses are designed to enhance the professional skills of the fire rescuers and dert rescuers to an advance level in terms of theoretical knowledge as well as hands on practice in accordance with the International guidelines. “All emergency services of developed countries always focus on training courses to enhance their capacity and performance,” he said, adding the Emergency Services Academy imparts training of revised rescue techniques of fire and rescue.

Meanwhile, Chief Instructor Fire Abrar Hassan Khan said the passed out rescuers have been taught new techniques about fire and rescue. “After exchange of experiences of rescue and fire emergencies with the experts of foreign emergency services, we have designed a special refresher training course for these rescuers to enhance their capacity,” he added. He further said that they would be sent to their respective districts from where we shall further take & evaluate their feedback about utilization of new rescue and fire techniques.