“From the October 18, 2007 Karsaz blast in Karachi, to the fire in Bolton Market and the Muharram bomb blast, I have seen it all,” says Zafar Ahmad who became a firefighter in 1997.

Karachi, with its population of approximately 22 million people, should ideally have over 200 fire stations. The number today stands at 22. Firefighters are ill-equipped, under-trained and underpaid and often find themselves risking their lives for very little in return. But what they lack in resources, they make up for in passion.

“According to international fire law, there should be one fire station for every 200,000 people,” says Zafar. “There are high rises everywhere and it’s very congested in most areas of the city. Instead of things getting easier, they’re getting increasingly difficult.”

What makes things harder for the firefighters is that builders do not abide by building codes. There are no proper fire escapes or marked signs and most buildings do not have fire extinguishers.

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“Unfortunately, there’s no system here that when a new building is being constructed, a fire officer goes to survey it to design and implement a fire escape system,” says Zafar. “Imagine, we arrive sometimes to find that we don’t even have access to water, how can we put out a fire without water.”

Saving lives, protecting homes, and extinguishing deadly blazes are a day’s work for Zafar, a firefighter.

Every morning during roll call at the station, Zafar and his colleagues exchange banter about the night before. All these men have families, bills and children’s education to worry about. But what worries them most is what would happen if they were injured on the job.

“If some accident or incident happens, we have to pay the way everyone else has to. People who don’t have the financial means don’t get the treatment then. So this is an enormous problem.”