Six children of a family died in a fire near in Lahore’s Kot Khwaja Saeed area late Saturday, when flames erupted in a building due to a short circuit. Fire and rescue teams reached the spot and extinguished the fire, but it was too late to save the children trapped inside.
Sadly six siblings, aged between one and 12, were asleep in a room where the fire broke out. Two of the children died of suffocation while the rest succumbed severe burns by the time rescue teams reached. The parents of the children were not at home at the time of the incident. Residents from the area protested against what they said was ‘incompetence and lax attitude’ of rescue personnel. They said the rescue teams arrived late at the scene otherwise the lives of the children could have been saved.
The Prime Minister sought a report into the incident and directed for action to be taken against those found responsible for the malfunction as well as the delayed arrival of water bowsers at the site.
It is a dilemma in our society that civic sense is lacking. We wait for a tragedy to occur and then start wondering to mend our ways. Civilized nations are known for their policies for the welfare of masses; here we are unable to figure it out. Had the rescue teams reached the spot on time, precious lives could have been saved. We do not consider incident worthy to discuss which take less lives. Perhaps our country is in grip of terrorism and we consider ‘a tragedy’ to an incident which takes over two dozen of lives. Using all available resources to fight war against terrorism is vital but so does welfare projects for the masses.
Concerned authorities must improve firefighting equipment and draw a proper mechanism so that such unfortunate incidents could be avoided in future.
