Assam fire service ill-equipped to tackle disaster

GUWAHATI, February 7: The State Fire Service Organisation which will have to play a major role in rescue operation besides fire fighting in the event of a mega earthquake rocking the State located in seismically high sensitive Northeast India, is not adequately equipped to face such a challenge. However, it will not be prudent to blame the department for the shortcoming. With its limited resources, it is simply not possible for the department to equip itself with sophisticated equipment to remain prepared for exigency in the wake of an earthquake which is predicted to rock the state any day before the year 2010. A highly placed source in the State fire Service Organisation informed that alerted by frequent predictions made by scientists about the North east most likely to be rocked by a high-intensity quake, the department had submitted a proposal seeking special assistance from the Union Ministry of Home to procure sophisticated equipment. The State fire service submitted the Rs 139.63 crore proposal to the Union Home Ministry through the State Government on May 27, 2000. However, it is still awaiting the response to its proposal. The special financial assistance was sought to purchase equipment like portable water pump, water tender pump, hose lorry, foam tender, crash tender, recovery van, ambulance, hydraulic platform, fire entry suit, breathing apparatus, dry power extinguisher, foam making branch pipe with drum etc. All these equipment are too costly to be procured with the limited budgetary resource of the Fire Service Organisation. Before that in March 1998, State fire service authority submitted another Rs 68.73 crore proposal through the State Government seeking assistance under the project modernisation of fire fighting and rescue services in India for Japanese grant assistance. The proposal was forwarded to Government of India by the State Government. Unfortunately, Japanese government decided to block aid to India after it had carried out nuclear tests at Pokhran in May, 1998. The State fire service authority now hopes that learning from the experience of the mega earthquake which ravaged Gujarat, the Central Government will consider to provide special financial assistance to it in order to equip itself to face the challenge of largescale rescue operation after an earthquake which is likely to rock the State. With the existing resources and manpower the State fire service organisation runs 52 sanctioned fire stations and 24 ad hoc fire stations in the State, out of which five are located in Guwahati city. Sources in the department informed that as per the laid down norm there should at least one fire station in every square kilometre in urban areas and one in every 50 square kilometre area in rural areas. As of now, the State has sufficient number of fire stations as per the requirement, but the fire stations badly needed to be upgraded and manned adequately. The source claimed that despite the limited resources State fire service personnel remained ready to jump into rescue operation in case of disaster like a mega earthquake. "Our personnel are well trained to carry out rescue operation and will be able to chip in meaningfully in a co-ordinated and largescale operation as required in the event of a quake," the sources said. The State fire service takes as much care as possible to keep its force fighting fit by sending them for modern training outside the State in institutions like National Fire Service Training School in Nagpur. Regarding fire fighting and rescue operation in the ever expanding, both vertically and horizontally, Guwahati city, the source in the State fire service expressed anguish over non-existence of approach roads with adequate width to many multi-storeyed buildings which are also not equipped with in-built fire fighting provisions. "If these buildings had been constructed as per the National Building Code, they would have been safer in the event of mega earthquake and fire," the sources said informing that agencies responsible for giving approval for such housing complexes in the city never bothered to procure no objection certificate (NOC) from the State Fire Service Organisation. However, as per the Assam State Fire Service Act and Rule, it is mandatory to procure the NOC from the Fire Service Organisation to construct such buildings. But it is hardly implemented, even State Government departments do not bother to procure the NOC from the fire service while constructing their offices and residential complexes. However, the source informed that Central Government organisations and undertakings were very particular in procuring the NOC from the fire service while constructing a building of their own.