Alarmed VMC orders fire audit of entire Vadodara

Vadodara: Alarmed at the lack of preparedness for a major fire disaster, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is set to get a city fire audit conducted. The audit will look into all aspects of the city’s fire and emergency department and submit a report in amount a month-and-a-half.
The VMC on Saturday asked the Institution of Fire Engineers based at Delhi to conduct the audit. Experts from the institute are expected to come to the city within a couple of days a begin work.
VMC commissioner Ajay Bhadoo said that the audit will identify vulnerable areas in the city and will also give suggestions regarding the kind of manpower and equipment that the VMC needs to procure. “For instance, we have seven fire stations now while three are in the pipeline and will come this year. Going by the city’s area, we need around 10 more fire stations. The audit will help us in identifying locations for the new fire stations,” said Bhadoo.
The audit will also suggest the schedule of fire officials that the city needs going by its size. It will also suggest the standard operating procedures for the training of the personnel of the fire brigade.
The VMC is also set to promote one of the station fire officers to the post of deputy chief fire officer (DCFO) in the city. This is apart from the plans to rope in a person as a DCFO through an advertisement inviting applications for the post.
The VMC is also looking at ensuring that the checking of establishments like hotels, restaurants, hospitals, coaching classes and other places where people gather in large numbers is done at regular intervals. The civic body is looking to draw a schedule to ensure that this happens consistently and not as a knee jerk reaction when some major tragedy happens in the city or elsewhere.