ISLAMABAD: Islamabad’s Capital Development Authority (CDA) has stepped up a citywide fire safety crackdown by sealing 14 buildings and issuing notices to dozens of overs over inadequate fire safety arrangements, an official said this week, after a deadly blaze at a public hospital last month killed 14 newborns.

The CDA has intensified fire safety audits across Islamabad after fire broke out at a nursery located on the third floor of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Aug. 26. Fourteen newborns were killed in the incident, prompting questions over the safety and fire response mechanisms in place at one of Islamabad’s largest public hospitals.

A report issued by the CDA days after the fire concluded that PIMS’ emergency escape routes were locked or obstructed. The report also described life-safety arrangements as entirely inadequate. The hospital has disputed these findings, maintaining that all exits were open and operational.

In the aftermath of the blaze, officials have discovered several shortcomings in existing buildings, particularly inadequate emergency exits, fire alarms and suppression systems.

"Right now we are conducting several fire safety audits across Islamabad," Ammad-ud-Din Muhammad, additional director of the CDA's Disaster Management and Capital Emergency Rescue Service, told Arab News on Friday.

“After this sad incident in PIMS Hospital, we have undertaken several fire audits and sealing all those high-rise buildings and vulnerable places where this fire safety hazard is, you know, too much reported.”

The CDA official said 14 buildings have been sealed so far as part of the latest enforcement drive, including the Shaheed-e-Millat Secretariat, State Life building, NICL building, Hotel Crown Plaza, Hotel Envoy Continental buildings and an office of the Multi-Professional Cooperative Housing Society in Islamabad.

The official said authorities had also issued notices to around 200 buildings, including the Marriott Hotel, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority headquarters, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority headquarters, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority headquarters and more than 75 public and private hospitals in the capital.

He said two public hospitals, the Poly Clinic Hospital and CDA Hospital, had each been fined Rs500,000 ($1803) over fire safety deficiencies.

The official said hospitals would not necessarily be sealed because of the risks associated with disrupting medical services.

“Actually, we are conducting these notices exercise since last 2011 onwards,” Muhammad said. “We are doing it and around 7,000 buildings have been served various notices and show cause notices and penalties.”

The fire safety audits, however, have been accelerated following the PIMS fire, he said.

OLD BUILDINGS, LAPSES

The CDA official identified inadequate escape routes as one of the biggest fire safety problems in Islamabad’s older buildings.

“Precisely the lapses are the means of egress, you know, the emergency exit which we call in a generic term,” he said. “That is so much lacking in the existing buildings.”

Muhammad said the problem was particularly acute in older commercial areas of the city, such as the old Blue Area and the markaz areas of Islamabad’s sectors G-9 and G-10.

He said the absence of fire detection and suppression systems is another major area of concern.

“We don’t have, you know, fire alarm systems in the buildings,” Muhammad said. “And after that there comes a suppression system.”

Suppression systems include fire extinguishers and sprinklers that help contain a blaze before firefighters arrive.

“Till the time the brigade reaches the spot, you know, that risk gets a bit lesser than the expectation,” he explained.

He said comparatively newer buildings owned by the private sector were generally better equipped to deal with fire emergencies. However, Muhammad said several existing structures remained deficient.

SHOPPING MALLS UNDER SCRUTINY

Muhammad said major shopping malls across the capital that can accommodate thousands are also being examined under the fire safety audit. He mentioned a fire that broke out in Islamabad’s The Centaurus Mall in 2024.

“Their fire system, whatever is existing right now, that is insufficient,” Muhammad said.

The CDA official said the management of Centaurus had submitted fire safety plans to the CDA in 2025. However, the required work had not yet been completed.

“By now it’s not approved from the CDA, but they have the systems,” Muhammad said. “But that system is not sufficient to cater for this many inhabitants.”

He added that another prominent shopping mall, the Safa Gold Mall, also had fire safety arrangements that still required improvements.

Muhammad assured residents that buildings in the newer Blue Area were comparatively safer than older structures.

“The new Blue Area is comparatively safer, the new constructions, you know, undertook after 2020,” he said. “They are comparatively safer than those which were constructed before 2009 and onward.”

However, he cautioned citizens against assuming that newer buildings were automatically safe.

“I would say that all the buildings, whether they are old or new, they need to go for a fresh fire audit of their buildings and they need to get their plans formally vetted from a certified consultant and that’s how they have to execute it subsequently,” he said.

Muhammad warned that buildings that fail to comply with fire safety mechanisms would face stern action. This includes the buildings securing a fire safety plan certified by an engineer of the Pakistan Engineering Council.

“Till such time such buildings will be under surveillance,” Muhammad said. “Strict actions are directed to be taken against all the defaulters and that will go on.”

He said the CDA is working on a long-term system through which fire safety is incorporated into building approvals from the start.

“We are working for an integrated plan with a building control department so that a person who is coming up, initially, he purchases a plot, he comes up for a building plan approval,” Muhammad said.

“So, we want him to get a fire safety approval side by side.”

He said the CDA also plans to urge Islamabad’s housing societies to maintain their own fire and safety crews, so that ir reduces emergency response times.