Daily Times

International Firefighters’ Day is the day when the world community, especially the emergency, fire and rescue services, can recognise and honour the sacrifices rendered by firefighters, ensuring safety of their communities and environment as maximum as possible.

The International Firefighters’ Day is marked each year on May 4 to pay tribute to the firefighters, who rendered their lives serving their communities. This is the time when the people sitting in the power corridors, citizenry and emergency services nationally and internationally show their complete support and appreciation to the firefighters worldwide who protect us by risking their own lives.

On December 2, 1998, a tragic fire incident shook the populated area of Victory’s Linton Community, Australia, where some brave firefighters were fighting a large wildfire and gave a humanitarian call for assistance to the world community. Subsequently, the Geelong West Fire Brigade moved to the scene, without knowing their upcoming fate. Garry Vredeveldt, Chris Evans, Stuart Davidson, Jason Thomas and Matthew Armstrong all of them after loading into the company’s truck moved to the scene aiming to extinguish the blaze. As they headed into the hot zone of fire, the wind suddenly switched direction, engulfing their truck in flames and killing all the five firefighters on the spot.

This unfortunate incident inspired Lt JJ Edmondson to work for the goal, which led to the International Holiday, commonly attributed now as International Firefighters’ Day, in order to support the lives lost and dedicated firefighters who risk their lives every day to save the life and property of their countrymen.

Also, Lt JJ Edmondson symbolised this International Firefighters’ Day with wearing red and blue ribbon, because the red stood for the element of fire whereas the blue would represent the element of water. According to statistical data, in the US, some 90 lines of duty deaths were recorded amongst firefighters in 2009, 36 being careers, and 7 being a part of a wild land agency. However, not only firefighters die because of fires.

The statistics show that in 2009, a total of 3,010 citizens died in different fire-related incidents. Also, 1.3 million fires occurred in 2009 resulted to the loss of $12.5 billion in direct property loss. In the same year, there were a total of 78,792 wildfires, which burnt down an estimate of 5,921,786 acres (23,964.62 km2). Although, the International Firefighters’ Day is marked globally to remember the sacrifices of the brave fire fighters, with the passage of time, the experts of firefighting profession introduced several innovative lifesaving ideas, including fire prevention and community training.

Consequently, the rescue and fire services started stressing upon the rulers and the community to adopt preventive measures to ensure safety of their own lives and properties.

In Pakistan, the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) marks this day each year on May 4 with the objectives and goals to protect the lives of the citizens. The visionary leadership of Dr Rizwan Naseer, director general, Punjab Emergency Services (Rescue 1122) and Emergency Services Academy, always puts his efforts in summarising the needs of the firefighters and encourages the youth to adopt this profession with passion to serve humanity. In this noble cause, the remarkable services of a former member of Scottish Parliament Belly Hazala Malik cannot be ignored, who always stood side-by-side with DG Dr Rizwan Naseer in time of need, whether it was the topic of training of firefighters from abroad or the issue of welfare of the firefighters. Hanzala Malik is the time-tested friend of Rescue 1122. Also, Malik is true “heavyweight” rescuer of Pakistan, who stood in front of the Scottish Parliamentary Committee head by saying, “First twinning of Glasgow-Lahore would be made afterwards other twinning of other cities would be possible”. He did this by twinning Children Hospital Lahore with York-hill Hospital for Sick Children, of Scotland.

Rescue 1122 is marking this International Firefighters’ Day in all districts of Punjab. Charity begins at home. Unfortunately in Pakistan, firefighting and fire safety has long been neglected, putting the lives and properties of the citizens at risk, leading to unfortunate incidents like fire in Shaheed-e-Millat Secretariat, National Assembly, the PACE Lahore, Gakkhar Plaza, LDA Building, PNS Karachi, etc. As far as firefighting is concerned, Rescue 1122 has established a modern fire service that has responded to over 92,000 fire incidents since its inception in 2007, saving losses worth over Rs 200 billion.

It is true there was no significant measure to tackle fires before 2004, the year Rescue 1122 was established in Lahore as a pilot project. Later, keeping in view the increasing number of fires, Dr Rizwan Naseer made a commitment to establish a modern fire service in Pakistan and he did that. Dr Rizwan Naseer, flanked by his team, visited Scotland where they got training of firefighting on modern lines. After arriving in Pakistan, he initiated the project of establishment of fire service in Punjab in 2007.

During a short span of 10 years, the fire service of Rescue 1122 has achieved a significant place in the hearts of the public. However, prevention is better than cure. We need to focus on fire safety. The basis for fire safety starts from the establishment of the ‘National Fire and Life Safety Codes’ as they already exist in India, UAE and other countries, and now the president of Pakistan has also notified National Fire Safety Codes. An effort in this regard was started and a meeting was held in the office of National Disaster Management Authority, Islamabad, in which the Pakistan Engineering Council was committed to developing the Fire and Life Safety Codes. Now, implementation of the National Fire Safety Codes is required by all stakeholders of society in letter and spirit.

These codes may be considered the minimum standards to minimise the occurrences of such unfortunate incidents in the future. We need to make a commitment of developing strategies for establishment of safer communities in Pakistan.