The State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department has submitted proposals to the government for establishing fire stations at Velagapudi, Polavaram, Sri City and Darsi.
The State has 172 stations but they are not sufficient and many places do not have a fire station.
“As per the norms, each Assembly segment should have a fire station. While some segments have more than one station, 35 constituencies do not have even one. Odisha has 340 stations and Karnataka 232. There is a need to increase the number,” said Director General (DG-Fire Services) K. Satyanarayana.
There are 733 (35%) vacancies in different cadres in the sanctioned 3,824 strength and aggravating the problem, 300 staff will retire in June.
“Of the 2,133 fire posts, only 1,590 are working in different stations and there are 543 vacancies. Similarly in the drivers’ category, only 520 of the sanctioned 630 posts have been filled up and 110 posts are vacant. We wrote to the government to fill the vacancies on outsourcing basis and provide necessary equipment to tackle the emergencies,” the DG said.
While there are 183 fire tenders, the officials plan to purchase 18 more soon. A proposal has been sent to the World Bank to procure equipment worth ₹35 crore, said Fire Services Director K. Jayaram Naik.
Students to be trained
Additional Director P.V. Ramana said the Department would recruit 2,500 student volunteers (200 from each district) from colleges.
They would be trained in association with the Red Cross Society on various aspects.
The department is focussing on intensive awareness programmes and so far more than l lakh people had been trained on fire prevention, operation of equipment and life saving techniques, said the director.
Task Force teams
Fire Task Force teams have been constituted (with 14 members in each team) in each district.
Instructions have been given to conduct meetings with sarpanches and display fire control and other emergency numbers at public places in view of summer.
About 437 violations had been detected and prosecution was launched against them. While persons 64 cases are pending trial, the court imposed fine in nine cases.
Eleven persons died in fire incidents during summer in 2015 and 18 people were rescued by the fire personnel. In 2016, 14 people died and 30 were saved. This year, 22 people lost their lives in March and six were rescued, Mr. Satyanarayana said.
