Firemen in Allahabad ride on zeal to douse flames

ALLAHABAD: The summer this year has been severe with short spells of rain and cloud cover. The temperature has already touched 43 degrees Celsius. The rising mercury level has led to a spurt in cases of fire. Fire department statistics state that 105 incidents of fire have been reported from April 1 till date. The latest incident was reported on Allahabad High Court premises on Wednesday.
Though the fire accidents have led to casualties in form of life and property, district has only 12 fire tenders to meet any eventuality. This includes 10 fire tenders for trans-Yamuna and trans-Ganga areas. Officials stress on doubling the number of existing fire tenders in the area as more than 50% of fire incidents in the last 46 days have been reported from 20 blocks of these areas.
“Scarcity of fire fighters, lack of quality fire tenders, permanent structure and even water during emergency are common problems faced by us. Proper distribution of available men and machinery can help cover these shortcomings,” said fire station officer Haider Abdi.
He said that medium size fire tenders have a capacity to store up to 25,000 litres of water, while the requirement is of big ones with 45,000 litres capacity. Fire stations in rural areas don’t have full size fire tenders, he added.
The fire station officer said that 40 cases of fire-outbreak were reported from Meja and Koraon areas of trans-Yamuna alone while 47 were from Naini and Karchana areas. City area registered eight cases.
Sources said that in rural areas firemen often seek villagers’ help in fetching water. While in city water is stored round the clock in tanks, such a facility is missing in rural areas.
Firemen’s plight could be gauged from the fact that while fire stations at Handia, Phulpur, Bara, Soraon and Meja are working from a temporary structure, construction of proposed fire station at Koraon is yet to begin.
“During a recent fire accident, we fetched water from river Tonnes as there was neither a pond nor a canal in the vicinity,” said a fireman on preferring anonymity.
However, chief fire station officer (CFO) Satish Chandra said that the department was fully equipped to fight fire.
“Temperature is rising unexpectedly. It is also the main reason for fire breakout but unlike previous year fire tenders are being provided to every fire station. The number of fire incidence too has come down comparatively. Cooperation from villagers is needed to bring down the numbers as majority of accidents occurs due to carelessness on the part of villagers,” said the CFO.