179 fire incidents reported in past 50 days in district

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, May 20

Around 179 fire incidents have been reported from Bathinda and its nearby areas. Most of the incidents have reportedly taken place in fields.

Residents, especially farmers, have suffered a huge loss due to these incidents. Farmers, whose crop was damaged in fire incidents, are demanding compensation from the state government.

The reason behind most of the fire incidents was a short-circuit, which took place due to sparks in loose wires passing above fields. Faulty transformers installed in fields have also led to such incidents.

Besides Bathinda, the department caters to Sangat Mandi, Rama Mandi, Talwandi Sabo, Kotfatta, Nathana, Bucho Mandi and Goniana Mandi. When a fire incident is reported from the district, fire tenders are sent from the city and it takes time for them to reach the site.

On a number of occasions, residents have demanded that sub-fire stations be opened in other towns of the district.

District Fire Officer Jaswinder Singh said, “The number of fire incidents increases during the crop harvesting season. So far, 179 incidents have been reported in the past 50 days.”

Since the onset of summer, there has been a spurt in the number of fire incidents in the city. The Fire Department here is ill-equipped to handle any major fire as it does not have the adequate equipment to control a fire in buildings having a height of over 40 feet.

The District Fire Department has a total of 10 vehicles, including four fire tenders of 5,000 litres capacity each, two small fire tenders of 2,500 litres capacity each, a mini fire tender of 500 litres capacity, a motorcycle and an ambulance. The city had received two new fire tenders last year only.

It is pertinent to mention here that work on the construction of a fire sub-station at ITI Chowk has been hanging fire due to paucity of funds for the last few years. The cost of the sub-station is stated to be around Rs 80 lakh. The Fire Department has got the land and constructed the boundary wall, but it is waiting for funds to construct the building of the fire substation.