Lack of equipment, assistance played havoc

ISLAMABAD - The horrific Marriott blast has once again exposed the weakness of state apparatus to deal with any such disastrous situation, thus pressing the need to formulate up-to-the-mark disaster management system that could mitigate the impact of calamity in future, either natural or man-made.
The Saturday blast, now called the 9/11 of Pakistan, has totally exposed the lacunae in the preparedness and skillfulness of our private and public security organizations as well as contradicted tall claims of the Capital’s civic body, which has very recently purchased equipments worth Rs 600 million to cope with fire incidents  in high rise buildings.
This scribe was present in an impressive show held recently when Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA), Kamran Lashari was taking the pride of inducting 600 trained firefighters and vehicles having 68m long approach ladders.
But the state-of-the-art fire and rescue squad of the Authority appeared at the site only when the fire had virtually engulfed the entire building. It took them almost 12 hours to extinguish the fire.
The government, dismayed over late arrival of the CDA fire brigade and absence of CDA Chairman from the site, has decided to conduct enquiry against both the Director Municipal Administration, CDA, Momin Agha and Chairman CDA, Kamran Lashari.
Dr Muhammad Ali, Incharge Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi team, while providing details of the rescue operation and fire  to TheNation, pointed out CDA’s incapability and some basic deficiencies in the hotel building, which, he said, greatly hindered their efforts.
He said CDA had called in Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi for providing assistance in water supply only, but it had to take charge of the whole operation after it observed that CDA, even after the lapse of so much time, had not even effectively positioned itself to deal with the situation.
He said the fire could be put down in few minutes had the CDA responded promptly, as only a small portion of the building remained on fire for quite some time.
“Rest of the building was on fire before the arrival of Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi team on the scene”, said Dr Ali, adding that by then the situation had already slipped out of the Capital Development Authority control.
He said they faced immense difficulties, as none of the facilities provided in mega structures like the Marriott Hotel for extinguishing fire were functional. He said the water sprinklers and fire extinguishers inside the hotel were rusty and outdated.