Fire Dept for upgrade of equipment

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 30

During the past 12 months, a total of 470 cases of fire incidents were registered in the district, including severe ones where causalities had occurred.

Every month, more than 30 cases are reported in the central Fire Brigade Department of the city. With a big increase in the rate of fire incidents, the preparedness of the Fire Department as well as the availability of the desired number of fire tenders and fire safety equipment is in question. Sub-fire officer at the department, Rajinder Sharma, talked to The Tribune about the matter.

Fire-fighting equipment and maintenance

Although four new advanced fire extinguishing buses have been provided to the Fire Brigade Department (three in 2016 and one in 2017), with a water storage capacity of 4,500 litres, 2,000 litres of foam storage capacity, compounds for secure gas cylinders and the capability to extinguish fires of all kinds, there is still a need of at least six-eight more such buses. Rajinder Kumar Sahota, a senior fireman in the department, said, “The government has undoubtedly made our task easier by providing us new buses, but there was a need for advanced buses like automated jack-installed lifting buses that are placed in Mohali. Moreover, we have just one tanker for the whole district. At least, two tankers are required in case of an emergency. Apart from that, the upgrade of the existing buses is also needed. The department has buses running for the past 17 years, whereas a bus can be used only for 15 years. Rajinder Sharma said the deadline for reaching the fire spot from fire station was three minutes, but only due to insufficient buses, it takes half an hour or more than that for the rescue team to reach the spot of the mishap. Also, the city is now home to many multi-storeyed buildings, but in case any untoward incident takes place, we are not fully equipped for rescue operations. There is a need for more fire-tenders and hydraulic ladders that can go up to a height of 150 feet

More staff needed

There are just nine drivers for 12 buses and only 35 firemen (30 contractual and five regular). As per the guidelines, there should be 109 firemen in the district and four firemen in one Fire Brigade van. Sharma said the government had more or less solved the problem of less number of staff members by deploying extra workers who are provided two months’ rigorous training at the Sundera training centre in Derabassi. Last month, three of our rescue members were severely injured, hence we are waiting for our demand of fire suits and masks to be fulfilled.

Fire-safety checks and certification

Sub-fire officer in the department Rajinder Sharma said almost every institution, factory and industry had been provided fire-safety certificates. As per the fire-safety norms, the department’s team verifies whether the institution is fully equipped with each and every fire safety device. Then only, the certificate is issued to them. Currently, 60-70 percent commercial and public service institutions have been issued the certificate. When The Tribune visited some of the fire zone institutions, the owners said though they were equipped with all fire extinguishing incidents, these equipment were expensive, hence they were unable to refill or update these at times.

Track record of fire probes, prosecution

Though in the past, no serious case of fire has been reported, Sharma claimed that last month, the department union had complained against the Kapoor grocery store where kerosene was stored by unauthorised means that caused serious burn injuries to three of the firemen.

 Still, in his notice, no action was taken against the store owner even though the union had complained at the local police station. Unaware of the cause of the fire, area SHO Navdeep Singh said, however, an FIR was registered against the shop owner but immediate interim bail was granted to the store owner.