NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 18
Dispatches Wide Shot
T R A N S P O R TAT I O N S A F E T Y
FIRE ON THE
TRACKS
Illegal cooking sparks a deadly
train fire in Pakistan
t was 6:30 in the morning on October 31, and the
Tezgam Express train was
packed with hundreds of passengers traveling between the
Pakistani cities of Karachi and
Rawalpindi. Some of the passengers were using portable stoves to prepare breakfast, which
is against the regulations of Pakistan Railways,
the company that operates the train. A gas cylinder used to fuel one of the stoves exploded,
the New York Times reported, and the resulting
fire quickly engulfed three train cars.
The Tezgam Express continued to barrel
along the tracks, becoming a rolling streak of
flames. "There was panic, and everyone started
shouting," one survivor told the Times. "Seven
people in our car jumped off to save their
lives." Another survivor told the newspaper
that the train's emergency brake didn't seem
to work properly, leaving many more panicked
passengers with little choice but to jump from
the rolling cars.
More than 70 people were killed in the
incident, some by the fire in the cars, others by
jumping from the train. The fire was the deadliest train incident in Pakistan since 2005, when
over 100 people died in a crash.
According to the Times, rail safety in the
South Asian country is severely flawed. At least
80 accidents were reported between July 2018
and July 2019, including a July 11 crash that
killed 21 people and injured 85 more, and a
June 20 crash that killed two.
While 80 accidents in a year might seem like
a lot, it's actually not out of the ordinary in Pakistan. From 2012 to 2017, an average of 125 train
accidents occurred in the country every year,
BBC News reported, citing data from Pakistan
Railways. When incidents happen, casualty
figures are often high because the trains are
almost always overcrowded, the news channel
said. -A.V.
I
18 | NFPA JOURNAL * J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - January/February 2020
Contents
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 1
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 2
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 3
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - Contents
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 5
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 6
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 7
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 8
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 9
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 10
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 11
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 12
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 13
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 14
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 15
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 16
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 17
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 18
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 19
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 20
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 21
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 22
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 23
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 24
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 25
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 26
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 27
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 28
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 29
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 30
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 31
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 32
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 33
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 34
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 35
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 36
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 37
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 38
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 39
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 40
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 41
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NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 80
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - Cover4
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