Muktsar farmer makes own fire tender

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 16

After wheat stubble on nearly 150 acres was burnt in an accidental fire at Kauni village in the Gidderbaha subdivision last year, Pal Singh Brar, a young farmer from the village, has prepared a parallel fire tender by using a tractor, water tank and a spray pump.

“I have not bought anything to make this fire tender having a capacity of 5,000-litre water. Nowadays almost every farmer has these equipment that can be used as a fire tender by little modifications and it is quite useful,” Brar said.

“Now, whenever any fire incident will occur in and around the village, we will rush this fire tender to the spot. Our village is about 25-km away from Gidderbaha and 17 km from Muktsar. Thus in case of any emergency, fire tender takes time of nearly 30 minutes to reach this place. Now we are hopeful to timely control the situation with our own sources,” he added.

Speaking further, he said, “It is cheap and the best method to minimise the risk of fire during the harvesting season. A few farmers in every village should make such parallel fire tenders that can minimise the risk of fire tragedies. Besides, it will decrease the pressure on firemen.”

Notably, accidental field fires during harvesting season are a common sight. Most of the times, it occurs due to some spark from combine harvester or electricity transformer. Even the Agriculture Department keeps advising farmers to first reap the mature crop from along the electricity transformers and also station a water tanker in the fields during harvesting.