PM Shehbaz sends helicopters to aid firefighting efforts in Swat

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said he has passed orders for helicopters to be flown to Swat to help the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) put out the wildfires that have been raging in five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for more than 24 hours.

In a tweet today, the premier said that two choppers were being immediately sent to the area at the request of the NDMA. “The full aerial support will boost the efforts of Rescue 1122, district administration & forest department to extinguish the fire,” he said.

According to rescue officials and locals, the wildfires broke out in different areas of districts Shangla, Haripur, Swat, Lower Dir and Mohmand on Saturday.

Shangla

In Shangla, firefighters struggled to contain the blaze for the second day.

The flames that affected Ali Jaan Kaprai, a village located on a mountain in tehsil Chakesar, left four members of a family dead and another injured during attempts to douse the blaze. Houses were reduced to ashes.

KP’s Minister for Labour and Culture and Shaukat Yousafzai, whose constituency is Shangla, said Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has promised compensation for the families of Chakesar.

He said the administration was ordered to take all necessary steps to provide relief to the affected areas’ communities and extinguishing the fire.

The authorities of the affected areas told Dawn yesterday that they had mobilised resources to put out the fires, which were destroying green trees and livestock grazing areas.

Shangla Deputy Commis­sioner Ziaur Rehman said that the fire had broken out in the bushes before it quickly engulfed nearby forests and swept towards a populated area. Responding to a question regarding relief efforts, the DC said that the area where the wildfire had broken out was located at a high altitude and therefore inaccessible.

Last night, the DC and Shangla DPO Muhammad Imran made the five-hour hike to Ali Jaan Kaprai, approximately 9,000 feet above sea-level, and assured the families of helping them with all available resources.

Swat

Meanwhile in Swat, forest officials said fires had broken out in the mountains of Pattaney; an area in the suburbs of Mingora; the Sikai and Sigram mountain areas in tehsil Kabal; the Kota Aboha area in tehsil Barikot; and in the mountains of Charbagh.

“Rescue 1122, Swat police, Swat levies, civil defence and Pakistan Army are actively participating in firefighting efforts,” Qazi Shabir Ahmad, a forest range officer in Swat, told Dawn.

He said breakouts happen when scorching heat turns grass and shrubs to tinder. Careless smokers or farmers looking to clear their land can spark a natural disaster with one thoughtless move.

Swat Deputy Commissioner Junaid Khan said the district administration had initiated an inquiry and was collecting information to determine the causes of the fires erupting in multiple locations. “We have some initial information, but an inquiry committee is working to investigate the causes in detail,” he said.

Shafiqa Gul, a Rescue 1122 spokesperson in Swat, told Dawn.com today that the fire was brought under control at Kot in Charbagh, but the blaze erupted in more parts of the district.

Fire teams and Rescue 1122 are engaged in firefighting efforts in the Deolai mountains of Swat’s Kabal tehsil as well as the other districts.

Fires were reported from Swat district’s Charbagh Pila Daram mountains.

Gul told Dawn.com that the fire on the hill of Kota Aboha in Barikot tehsil of Swat has been brought “completely under control”.

In Kabal tehsil, she said firefighting efforts were under way in the Sarsani and Dukt mountains.

On the other hand, separate fire breakouts were reported in Haripur and Mohmand as well.

Last month, a massive fire decimated a pine nut forest in Balochistan’s Sherani district in the Koh-i-Sulaiman range, leaving three people dead.