97 fire incidents in Aug; victims unable to call tenders on time

Sumayyah Qureshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 14

Fires incidents in residential areas are a cause for concern, more so when the communication lines in the Valley have been down since August 5. The first 10 minutes of a fire incident are called the golden period and are crucial. Fire tenders must reach in the first 10 minutes to prevent fire from causing further damage and spreading to adjacent houses or establishments. In most fire incidents since the clampdown, fire tenders could not reach in the given period due to communication blockade.

With no other way to contact the Fire and Emergency Department, people have had to rush to its headquarters in the Batamaloo area of Srinagar to inform officials about incidents of fire and need for fire tenders.

“We had 97 running callers since August 5 as landlines were not functioning. People have come on their scooters or cars to inform us about fire incidents. Sometimes, victims also managed to contact us somehow,” said Tasaduq Ahmad, Divisional Fire Officer (DFO), Srinagar.

“Within 10 minutes, we should be successful in arranging water to douse the flames, but due to the communication blockade, it took us more time to reach the spot. There were some apprehensions too,” he said.

The DFO said all running calls were normal fire calls and were not related to incident of violence.

The Valley, which has been under a continued communication blockade since the state was stripped of its special status on August 5, has witnessed 97 fire incidents from August 5 to 31 and 32 incidents from September 1-10 as per the data of the Fire and Emergency Services Department.

As many as 25 fire incidents were reported in Srinagar district from August 5-31, as per the data.

As mobile phones remain permanently down and landline phones were recently restored, people have not been able to call up the department for immediate help in case of fire incidents.

Though the state fire services control room has its own wireless communication and its hotline was working throughout, both were of little help to the fire victims as all communication networks had been snapped.

An official at the state fire services headquarters said the landline phone of the office was restored around September 5. He said as landline phones were restored throughout the Valley, adding that calling up the department now would be a little easier for people in case of any fire incident.