14 people have been killed in a blaze following a traffic accident near Jhelum on the Lahore-Rawalpindi section of the Grand Trunk Road. Another eight have been injured. The accident was caused by a passenger van hitting another vehicle. The van apparently developed a fuel leak in the accident resulting in a virtual inferno. In a similar accident two years ago 14 people, also on board a passenger van, had burned to death near Chakri interchange.
There is no justice for those dying in fatal fires or for those injured. It follows that there is no closure for the survivors or the affected families. The LDA Plaza fire in Lahore and the Baldia Factory fire in Karachi are etched in public memory. In both instances inquiries established arson and several suspects have been identified in the latter case. However, there is another dimension to the case. Fires, it seems are allowed to kill people and destroy properties and are challenged only by ill-equipped and ill-prepared firefighters.
The fires are not naturally occurring disasters. They break out and spread following violations of safety codes. The governments, which have a duty to enforce fire safety rules, are negligent. And it is not just fires sparked by road accidents for which those responsible go unpunished. Most of the fires in public buildings, too, are poorly investigated and seldom result in a prosecution. The lingering suspicion that in many cases these fires are incidents of arson motivated by a desire to destroy official records seems justified.
In 2017, a fire in Awami Markaz building gutted had valuable tax record. A fire was also said to have destroyed record of the Nandipur Power Project in 2016. The LDA Plaza fire in Lahore in 2013 was also rumoured to have been caused to destroy Lahore Development Authority records that might have led to convictions for fraudulent transactions. Transparent inquiries are needed in every case to put down public suspicion.
While arson has been established in the Baldia Factory case, poor building and fire safety regulation cannot be denied either. The building was found to have had no emergency exits and no fire alarms.
The deaths in Jhelum highlight the negligence on the part of transport authorities, which allows commercial transport to endanger lives by installing rickety gas cylinders and pipes in vans and buses. The drill after such fires is all too familiar: verbose statements, hasty crackdowns and arrests are followed by long silences until another tragedy of the kind makes headlines. Unsafe factory buildings, malls and public transport vehicles are a threat to lives of millions of people in the country. Hundreds and thousands of factories, malls, and vehicles openly flout the fire safety rules. Will a government deny this? The governments need to realize the gravity of the situation and devise a robust inspection regime to enforce safety rules.
The exercise requires political will and massive resources. It is also worth it. *