Geospatial Analysis of Efficient Fire Brigade Emergency Services in Lahore City Pakistan

Fire Brigade Emergency Service in Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

The world is witnessing an increase in the number of frequent disasters. According to WHO, 180,000 people die from burns annually throughout the whole world. In our study area, an average of 2230 fire accidents occur every year out of which 100 people die. Lahore is the second largest city in Pakistan. It has 18 rescue stations and a total of 26 working fire brigade vehicles that are un-systematically distributed in the study area. Our study area includes a total of 57 fire hydrants that are distributed un-systematically out of which 4 are non-functional. Geospatial technology has helped us in determining the problems as the new tools are very effective and useful to analyze, investigate, describe, clarify and visualize potential fire-prone areas for effective management with available resources producing realistic results. The result shows that 1% of the study area, which is about 17 km2, is completely in accessible for the fire brigade vehicles with respect to its dimensions and road width. Accessibility zones are also generated using network analysis, which shows that only 20% of the study area is being reached by the fire brigade vehicles within the incident response time i.e., 7 min. 32% of the area is reached within 8 to 15 min and 47% of the area is reached after 15 min, which is an alarming situation. It has been observed that the planned residential colonies and towns are safe, while the unplanned and poor areas lack the basic facilities and are more prone to fire incidents and are inaccessible for the fire brigade vehicles. Government departments and agencies must perform similar kind of research and work to develop and implement sustainable policies for the betterment of the fire rescue system.