Ludhiana: With the onset of festival season fire brigade officials have also swung into action and they have started keeping their system intact so as to avoid any untoward incident in the city during the festivals, especially Diwali. However, this festival season also the fire brigade will have to manage fire incidents with limited resources only. The much awaited upgrading plan under smart city mission is still taking time to become a reality. However, another upgrading plan is on the cards at the state level and how much the city benefits from it is yet to be seen.
The fire brigade upgrading is pending for a long time as with the passing of a number of years the staff count is falling and so is the quality of equipment. Under the smart city mission several proposals were made to buy new equipment to strengthen the working of department, but still except for five inflatable portable lights, the officials did not get anything.
Requesting anonymity, one of the fire officials claimed that they had these lights earlier also but these were not that much useful and if there is some technical fault in these then these cannot be repaired locally. He said they required small fire tenders, fire-proof suits and hydraulic ladders at the earliest. He claimed that along with this, attention should be paid towards the appointment of staff in the fire brigade.
Meanwhile, sub-fire officer Navrang Singh said they had made all necessary arrangements for the festival season and they had also demanded 15 extra drivers and generator sets from the civic body. He said they would also be conducting checking in the markets to see whether all fire hydrants were in working condition as in old city there were fire hydrants from where they could get water supply in case of any incident.
Adviser at Punjab Fire Services Bhupinder Sandhu said the upgrading plan under the smart city mission for Ludhiana was going on as there were certain issues in the detailed project report which had been resolved now and very shortly condition of fire brigade would improve with addition of latest equipment. He said apart from this, even at the headquarter level they were going to purchase new equipment like hydraulic ladders, fire suits and other cutting tools very shortly. Sandhu claimed that these things would be distributed in all cities as per requirements.
Staff crunch, lack of fire stations
Though this year lesser fire incidents were witnessed as factories were closed due to lockdown, still there is a need to resolve the staff crunch issue as well. The city does not have a senior-level officer at the moment. The posts of assistant divisional fire officer and station fire officers are lying vacant. Recently, the fire officials were given the authority to conduct checking in the factories or other establishments for fire arrangements and if required they could even take steps like sealing of the unit. But in the absence of senior officials the sub-fire officials were unable to start any checking drive as well.
There is acute shortage of regular firemen as well. However, for a city where there are 17 lakh people living only five fire stations are functional, whereas plans to establish more fire stations on Tajpur road or Rahon road are still pending.
What is expected from upgrading
The plan is to purchase mini-fire tenders, victim location cameras with wireless life detector, along with breaching system, aluminised fire proximity suit, light weight stretcher, eye protection equipment, portable radio set, safety torches, hydraulic aerial ladder platform (height 70m), etc. It is to be seen when the fire brigade will get these equipment.