Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Factors Behind Enigmatic fire Events

During the current years, Afghanistan has seen frequent enigmatic fire events throughout the country causing millions of economic losses to the already weakened people of Afghanistan. The latest fire event happened in Faryab province that caused one death, four injuries and millions of economic losses on Afghan citizens. However, it was not the first fire event and would not be the last one as well. Earlier more widespread fire was happened in other provinces such as Kabul, Herat and Farrah provinces. Based on an official report, nearly 500 million$ economic losses were only inflicted on Islam Qala port in Herat province where burnt 435 trucks of goods and 500 tankers of oil and gas. This fire was so huge and terrible that the official sought help from a second country to put out the fire event and finally it not extinguished without help of Iranian fire fighters.
The next terrible fire event which imposed million dollars on traders and people of Afghanistan happened in Temor Shahi Market, kabul. In Temor Shahi Market, nearly 20 shops were entirely burnt while they were full of clothes, shoes, curtain and so on. Similar event repeatedly happened in other parts of Kabul such as Mandayee, Kote-sangee, and west of Kabul and other places of the city. If we count all fire events in Kabul city, it imposed billion dollars on the already suffering people. When such events happened in the country, the traders try to compensate their losses by increasing the prices which in turn pressurize the ordinary people.
Anyway, these mysterious and successive fire events which imposed millions of expenses on Afghan people not only raised a lot questions and skepticisms in the country, but also increased the cost of goods in Afghan markets.  There could be various reasons behind the issue such as government inability, carelessness of traders, old custom system, and lack of facilities, administrative corruption, road congestions, unsound competitions amidst traders and more importantly inflicting political pleasure on government and people of Afghanistan. According to Afghanistan’s chamber of comers, lack of separate route for sensitive goods such as gas and oil, technical issues in digital scales, lack of preventive and reactive facilities such as fire extinguishers and lack of human capacities are some of the most important factors behind the chronic problem.
Out of abovementioned factors, the most important factor behind most issues is congesting roads inside large cities, especially Kabul. When a building or parts of city is caught fire, it takes long hours for firefighters to reach the destination. Because of this, it is not the first, second or third times that people criticize the fire fighters because of delay while they have their own excuse which is crowdedness and road congestion in the cities. The congested roads not only act as barrier against firefighters but also impose other types of expenses on the people. For example, it increases the fare of urban transportation because the cars spend extra petroleum in the crowded roads. In addition to wasting time as immaterial cost and production of more air-pollution while in emergency cases, the congested roads impose heavier material and immaterial costs on the people. For example, when there is a patient with critical conditions such as heart attack, pregnancy or other urgent cases; it is too hard to rescue the lives of such patients. Because of this issue a pregnant woman whether birth to her baby inside a car on the way to the hospital or die because of too much waiting or bleeding on the way to the health center. School students, public and private personnel also stuck for several hours behind traffic crowds. Therefore, congested road is not only a serious behind the expansion of fire event but also create other issues.
The next factor behind the fire events that usually discussed in media community is the issue of smuggling and unsound completions amongst traders. It is said that the smugglers of goods proceed to such criminal actions so as to impose their own goods on higher price on the people. The smugglers are also blamed for promotion of addiction and supply of illegal drugs and opium to the people. As a result, millions of people are addicted in the country that includes children, women, men and unemployed youths in the country. Event, it is said that during the night, early morning and late evening they supply drugs to youths while having connection with police and security officials.
The last important factor behind the fire event in the country is the political games. According to local analysts the successive fire events in Afghanistan are not accidental and there must be some political factors behind the issue. It seems that the terrorist groups cannot fight face to face with security forces, they try to indirectly put pleasure on government and people through imposing economic losses such as destroying roads, markets, schools and launching attacks on softer and easier goals. Based on recent officials’ reports, everyday hundreds of terrorists are killed around the country and so they want to retaliate attacking on civilians and national infrastructures. Nevertheless, none of the above mentioned factors can justify the irresponsibility of the government and security institutions about the successive fire events. It is the high time that the government and security forces ensure the security of traders, civilians and national infrastructures in the country. In fact, the government inability for such destructive events will not only decrease the legitimacy of the government, but also help the terrorists and enemy of Afghanistan reach their sinister goals in the country.