Firefighters’ lone battle

Gurvinder Singh

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Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 23

In the absence of proper equipment, insurance, pension, public indifference, firemen are putting their lives in jeopardy every day. To make things worse, now even their families want them to leave this “thankless” job. Not only do firemen battle the indifferent attitude of the government, but are ill-equipped to confront and fight fire incidents as well.

Inadequate equipment

Virtually nothing has been provided by the Fire Department except a helmet to them. In the absence of fireproof uniform or gear, firemen are forced to use blankets and wet sacks as a poor safeguard during fires. They are not even provided with proper shoes, as they have to purchase the ‘gum boots’ on their own, which are of no use. Even the uniforms they wear were provided to them five years ago, they said. They have not even been provided with safety masks or oxygen cylinders to help them breathe. “Not just this, we need cutters to cut through blocks, insulated rods because electric current runs through shutters, other metallic equipment at the fire site especially where fire is due to short circuit,” a fireman on the condition of anonymity said.

Inadequate tenders

There are just five fire stations and only 17 fire tenders for the entire city! The fire stations are at the local bus stand on the GT Road, Gill Road, Haibowal, Gill Road and Focal Point. There are four fire tenders on Gill Road and one of these is defunct; one fire tender at Haibowal fire station; one at Sundar Nagar; four at Focal Point, of which one is damaged; while seven fire tenders are there at the local bus stand area. Apart from six fire tenders that came from the Centre, the rest are more than 15-years’ old. Many of these are in poor condition. “In fact, if there is a fire elsewhere when these are being used to douse fire at one place, we often have to send these from that site,” said a fireman.

Staff shortage

Not only are fire tenders inadequate, but even the staff is short. Sometimes, fire tenders are there, but drivers are not available. There are just 88 people in the department to deal with fires in the entire district!

There are 32 firemen, while 30 were recruited a couple of months ago from PESCO. There are just five regular drivers and three from PESCO. Three drivers have been hired at the DC rate.

People indifferent

“People panic. They call us and blame us for not sending fire tenders on time. They argue with us if the water supply exhausts or if there is delay in reaching the spot. They even come home and start abusing us,” a fireman said. “There have been instances when people threw stones at us because the fire tenders could not reach on time. There isn’t any security as well,” they said. “Even the filling points are located far off. Traffic doesn’t easily give way when we have to rush to a spot. People are indifferent towards us. Recently, there was a fire at a building made of mud and bricks. The mud started melting and bricks started falling off. People were running out of the building but they wanted us to enter the building and douse the fire,” a fireman said. “Such is the attitude of people,” he said.

‘Families want us to leave job’

“When people celebrate festivals with their kids, we are on duty. We hardly celebrate any festival with our children. Already short staffed, we are on duty for at least 12 hours,” said a fireman. In the wake of recent incident and earlier in May when four firemen got injured, the firemen as well as their families are traumatised. “We don’t have any insurance, lack of pension, inadequate equipment and lack of protection equipment. Our jobs are full of risks with paltry income. Members of our family now want us to leave this high-risk job with no incentive,” another fireman said. “The authorities on the other hand feel we sit idle and have no work. In fact, the salaries were reduced from Rs35,000 to Rs25000 for regular employees,” said a fireman. “Even though we risk our lives to save others, the grade pay is lesser than that of the clerical staff,” he said. The condition of those recruited under the Punjab Ex-Servicemen Corporation is even worse. They are just paid Rs9,200 and many of them commute from distant locations since they cannot afford an accommodation.

Firefighters' demand 

Instead of making the Fire Department function under the Municipal Corporation, the government should make a separate directorate for it, firemen demanded.

CPI demands equal compensation for all victims 

Ludhiana: Dr Joginder Dyal, Member, Central Executive Committee, and Hardev Arshi, state Communist Party of India (CPI) Secretary, visited the site of fire tragedy in the Mushtaq Ganj area here on Thursday. They also met the families of the deceased. Commenting on the quantum of compensation announced by the state government, they said it was unfair to discriminate between the Fire Department/ MC employees, factory workers and other victims of the tragedy.  “The government has announced that the employees would be given Rs 10 lakh, while other vicims would be given Rs 2 lakh as compensation,” they said. They said such discrimination in compensation was unfair and each victim should be given ex-gratia grant of Rs 10 lakh.  “The workers in the ill-fated plastic factory came from far-flung areas and belonged to poor families. Though the owner of the factory has been arrested, similar action should be taken against the Municipal Corporation officials who failed to act against the violation of building norms, despite complaints by the area resident.”   The CPI leaders called for setting up a high-powered committee to look into such buildings and take appropriate remedial action without political pressure or any other consideration. The party would follow up the matter till its logical conclusion, they added. OC

294 fire incidents reported so far

There have been 294 fire incidents in the city this year, of which the maximum fires, being 62, have been reported in October. As many as 39 fire incidents were reported in April, 40 in May, 20 in August. Till the mid of this month, there have been around 17 such incidents.

Fund request not met

While a report and requisition regarding the need for the equipment was sent to the state government by the Municipal Corporation around two years ago, the Fire Department still battles the shortage of equipment. 

The MC had sought more than Rs 74.4 crore from the government for improving the functioning of the department. The MC had requested 25 water tenders, five foam tenders, 11 water bowers (tankers), four advance rescue vans, 15 mini fire tenders, 24 fire-proof suits, 24 breathing operator sets and several other equipment such as pressure pumps, later, generators, light inflatable tower, six ambulances, hydraulic cutters, hydraulic spreader, 15,000-metre hose pipes, 8,000 chemical foam compound, 15 jeeps, 16 motorcycles, etc. Funds had also been sought for eight new fire brigade buildings. It was written to the government that “it is necessary that the fire-fighting system of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation is strengthened. Therefore, Rs 7,446 lakh may be provided to the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation.”  Sources said the state government had to send this letter further, seeking funds from the Centre. Only six fire tenders have yet been received from the Centre.  As the city has further expanded, even the amount sought two years ago will be inadequate now, say officials. “It is unfortunate that no heed is being paid to improving the fire fighting system in the city,” said an official.