Polyclinic & PIMS hospitals have no fire prevention mechanism

In the federal capital, two government hospitals with thousands of patients and their visitors on site have no fire prevention equipments despite various warning notices by the Directorate of Emergency and Disaster Management (DEDM). The documents available with Daily Times revealed shocking news of negligence of both hospitals’ administrations regarding the value of human lives. According to Islamabad Fire Prevention & Life Safety Regulation 2010 which extend to whole Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), all such precautionary measures are necessary which deal with the prevention, control & fighting of fire, to ensure the safety of life and property in case of fire. Building Standards include three clauses-fire prevention, life safety and fire protection. The authority has power to seal all those buildings violating the ordinance by not taking enough measures of fire prevention and safety of public life. According to the available documents with this scribe, all hospitals and nursing centers with buildings of maximum 33ft fall under category “C” and ought to incorporate suitable preventive measures. Both government hospitals come under the category as per the Directorate of Emergency and Disaster Management. According to officials of the hospitals, in Polyclinic hospitals within premises of the Blue area of Islamabad, on daily basis more than 25,000 people pay visits while more than 1000 people are admitted in different wards, but still the administration didn’t take imperative measures of fire prevention and life safety. According to the available information from the authorities, inside the hospital no proper fire extinguishers or basic equipments are installed to control the fire in case of emergency. Additionally, the hospital administration has no House reel, Wet Riser, Fire Pump and automatic equipments to control the fire during emergencies. Interestingly, there is no fire alarm needed during fire eruption to inform people in premises to vacate the area. The fire alarm which is so cheaper in price, according to the officials, had not been installed in the hospitals. Additionally Sprinkler system-grid of water pipes and sprinkler heads installed in a building to control and extinguish fires during emergencies- the administration failed to install it inside the basement of the hospital according to the documents. The information further added that, inside the hospital, batteries operating system (Emergency lights) is still not set up. Emergency lighting system is a helpful precautionary measure- when the electric supply is shut down to get rid of more fire eruption, these lights guide the people inside the building to move from a risky place to safer location. Evacuation and safe mobility become difficult with no light. The experts of the fire prevention show unsatisfactory remarks over the wiring system inside the buildings which is high risk for eruption of fire. The evacuation routes during emergencies are mostly block, according to the information. According to officials in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS)-the capital’s sole hospital where on daily basis more than 4,000 outbound patients and their relatives visit OPD alone, including around 2,000 admitted patients, with hospital staff of more than 1,000 available in different centers/wards of the hospitals-the highest level of negligence was observed regarding fire prevention and life safety, worst like Polyclinic. According to the details, PIMS Hospital has no proper fire extinguishers to control fire. Wet risers, house reels, fire pumps are still not installed in the premises of the hospitals to counter emergencies. Interestingly, the capital’s biggest hospital has no fire alarming system to inform the people about the fire eruption as well as no light maintenance system during suspension of light as well as the open wiring system remains a threat for fire eruption. The hospital has no evacuation routes as most of the routes are dumped according to the available details. Official of the Directorate of Emergency and Disaster Management while talking to Daily Times told that everyone is bound under the ordinance of 2010 to adopt fire prevention and life safety measures during emergencies but unfortunately both hospitals still have not adopted the preventive measures. He added that notices have been served to both hospitals’ administration repeatedly, but both didn’t respond satisfactorily to the authorities. If any of the hospitals catches fire, with thousands of people on the spot, who will be responsible? The Directorate or the administration of the hospitals, wondered the official. “Whenever we reach to the spot, most casualties are already occurred due to the careless approach of the administration as they didn’t take necessary steps to prevent fires but everyone blames fire brigade, he added. According to the documents, the Directorate repeatedly informed both hospitals administrations to adopt the preventive measures but in vain. According to the ordinance 2010, every large building is bound to have the preventive measure for prevention of fire and life safety and those who violate the laws will be fined up to 500,000 rupees. The authorities have power to seal their buildings but according to various interviews and cross checks, no one has been fined till yet on this highest negligence. When contacted, the official spokesman of PIMS Dr. Waseem stated that they have no information regarding the issue while the Polyclinic administration remained unavailable for comments on the issue. Published in Daily Times, January 25th 2019.