1,900 fire incidents happen in past 18 months

KABUL (Pajhwok): As many as 1,900 fire outbreak incidents — 25 percent in commercial centres — happened in the country in the past 18 months, the Fire and Rescue Department said on Tuesday.

Experts have expressed concern over the so many fire incidents in commercial centres and blamed them on recklessness, low safety standards and in some cases on unhealthy competitions.

Causes and figures

According to the Fire and Rescue Department of the Ministry of Interior, 1,800 fire incidents were registered last solar year and during the past 18 months, 1,900 fire incidents were registered.

Fire and Rescue Department Head Hafiz Noorullah Ansari said most fire incidents happened due to recklessness, below standard construction and ignorance of fire related norms.

“Since the takeover of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, 1,900 incidents of fire outbreaks took place. Out of the total incidents, 1,000 occurred in Kabul,” he said.

He said care in using incendiary devices and the increase in people’s awareness about fires could help decrease the number of fire incidents.

Col. WaisuddinQadari, operations department head at the Fire and Rescue Department, said: “Twenty-five percent of fire outbreak incidents that happened in the past 18 months were related to commercial centres.”

Experts’ views:

Abdul Naseer Reshtya, an economic affairs expert, said: “Fire is a devastating phenomenon that causes financial and human losses, the statistics of fires in the country are alarming.”

Referring to fire outbreaks in commercial buildings, he said most of the time such incidents happened due to carelessness and below the standard nature of buildings.

In addition, he said in some cases resulted from unhealthy competitions between businessmen and owners of buildings.

He recommended that every citizen had responsibility in every place to carefully use all tools that could cause fire breakout and tools used for fire control should be available in every place — homes, shops and commercial centres.

AmanullahHotaki, another economic affairs expert, said: “In Afghanistan, we have witnessed different areas, markets and shops catching fire and as a result businessman, individuals and common people suffer losses.”

He also linked fire incidents to carelessness, unhealthy competitions and substandard buildings in the country.

Fire control resources

Head of the Fire and Rescue Department said currently they have 2,000 personnel and 300 different types of vehicles and machinery.

He said the lack of personnel and equipment were among some of the issues they were facing and said: “There are several problems and challenges, steps have been taken to resolve them and we will not refrain from any kind of effort and sacrifice for this department.”

He said some equipment had been damaged and needed repair, adding that: “Eighty percent of our firefighting equipment were faulty and needed repair and 60 percent of them have been repaired and the repair of the remaining equipment is underway.”

He said the past regime did not pay attention to the Fire and Rescue Department, adding that they were more concerned about military and special units.

In line with recommendation of the Fire and Rescue Department, it has been decided that more units would be created and this department would be expanded.

Advice to citizens

Hotak advised citizens they should use extreme caution in the use of incendiary devices and that there should be enough tools and facilities to contain fires in commercial centers.

He said: “In my opinion, it is necessary for owners of markets and traders to have technical people in electricity fire control areas.”

“If commercial markets are built according to the standard, I believe that such incidents will be prevented, if we look at the developed world, in markets fire does not happen easily because everything is made according to standards,” he added.

Affected People:

Syed Mansour Joshan, director of Amini Trade Centre in Khairkhana area of Kabul where recently a fire incident happened, said the fire broke out due to carelessness.

“Jewelers are working in two shifts in the building and when they left the centre the fire broke out.”

Khawaja Bismillah, Legal and Security Affairs head of Daudzai Trade Centre, said the recent fire incident in Daudzai Trade Centre was intentional.

“One person has been arrested in connection with the fire incident, the fire did not spread due timely action, otherwise it would have been catastrophic and could have engulfed the entire market.”

Kabul Police Spokesperson Khalid Zadran said: “In this case we arrested a 12-year-old boy and later we realized that the boy was mentally not sound.”

He was released on bail because enough evidence against him was not available.

nh/ma

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