Army's help sought to douse Margalla Hills fire

ISLAMABAD: The fire that erupted in the forests of the Margalla Hills on May 29 couldn’t be brought under control after three days of efforts by firefighters.

Capital Development Authority (CDA) Environment and Emergency Wing has approached the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to seek help of Pakistan army to extinguish the wildfire.

Sources told ARY News that the NDMA has already sought assistance of the military to help extinguish the fire as fire tenders couldn’t reach certain spots.

This is the second fire in less than a week. A day earlier, the fire had erupted at two different spots of the hills, which included Sadiqpur village and Daman-e-Koh.

A CDA official said the authority is making all-out efforts to extinguish the fire as they have already cleared a large hilly area, but couldn’t put out the blaze in the spots which are inaccessible to fire tenders.

Earlier in March, a fire had broken out in the Margalla Hills, which was also doused with help of army and Pakistan Air Force (PAF).