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LAHORE, Jun 01 (APP): Emergency Services Department Secretary Dr. Rizwan Naseer expressed serious concern over the unprecedented 89% increase in forest fire incidents from 199 last years to 377 incidents so far in 2024.
He expressed the concerns while reviewing the monthly emergencies data and performance of all districts of Punjab on Saturday. The Divisional Emergency Officers (DivEOs), District Emergency Officers (DEOs) and Officers from Emergency Services Headquarters (HQs) participated in this operational review meeting. All DEOs shared operational performance of their districts while discussing major emergencies, challenges, case studies, lessons learnt and initiatives from their respective districts.
Dr Rizwan Naseer emphasized coordinated efforts for timely detection of such incidents at initial phase for swift response and effective firefighting and control. He also appreciated Rescue firefighters of Murree, Chakwal, Narowal & Rawalpindi for extinguishing challenging forest fires taking several days of efforts in extreme weather, burning forest flames and suffocating smoke.
The Provincial Monitoring Officer briefed that Rescue 1122 rescued 195,696 victims while responding to 204,930 emergencies across Punjab during May. He said that out of 204,930 emergencies, 137,584 were medical emergencies, 40,265 road traffic accidents, 5,017 crime incidents, 4,814 fire incidents including 152 forest fires, 3,842 delivery cases, 2,191 occupational injuries, 1,305 animal rescue, 156 drowning cases, 52 structural collapses and 9,704 miscellaneous operations in Punjab.
He was also apprised that Punjab Emergency Service responded to 4,814 fire incidents including 152 forest fire operations in May in which a majority of forest fire incidents took place in Murree i.e. 26, followed by 24 forest fire incidents in Chakwal, 18 in Narowal, 17 in Rawalpindi & 16 in Gujrat. He also briefed that 363 people died in 40,265 Road Traffic Crashes in Punjab in the last month. Out of these traffic accidents, the majority of traffic accidents, 8,653 occurred in Lahore in which 36 people died. Similarly, 2,828 RTCs in Faisalabad, 2,475 RTCs in Multan, 2,262 in Gujranwala, 1,650 in Rawalpindi and 1477 in Sheikhupura while the remaining 20,920 accidents took place in 30 districts of Punjab.
Dr. Rizwan Naseer expressed serious concern over the unprecedented 152 forest fires in previous month in Punjab. He stated that rescuers conducted day and night fire and rescue operations in challenging and difficult situations. He saluted the firefighters for managing forest fire incidents in mountains and difficult terrains. He explained that the timely detection of forest fires and prompt calls can reduce the spread and damage of fires.