Residents suffer losses as admin poorly equipped to fight fires

As there are no proper ways to put out the flames by the firefighters, people have lost valuables worth millions of rupees. A few days ago, a market caught fire in Booni and the fire brigade department failed to extinguish the flames even after hours due to lack of preparedness. As a result, nine rooms along with the valuables inside worth millions of rupees were burnt to ashes. In the latest incident, a house was burnt to ashes in the Jughoor area of Chitral on Saturday night rendering the inmates homeless. The DC office on Sunday said on the direction of Deputy Commissioner Chitral Shahab Hamid Yousafzai, Assistant Commissioner Abdul Akram visited the burnt house and provided tents, blankets and other items to the affected residents. “The District Administration Chitral is with him in this harsh time. His residential house burned to ground along with all belongings due to electric short circuit on April, 8, 2017.” But the residents of Chitral have been demanding that awareness should be created in society and that the government should upgrade its fire brigade department and open its units in all parts of the valley to save life and property from being burnt in accidental fires. Mere sending officials to visit the burnt houses and extending temporary assistance to the affected citizens would not resolve the issue on a permanent basis, they added.]]>