The Gurgaon Fire Department is so under-resourced that it occasionally has to depend on the fire-fighting equipment of private firms.
It is also struggling with the growing number of skyscrapers in the Millennium City as it does not have the equipment to reach the top levels of high-rise buildings.
For a city with a population of nearly 10 lakh, Gurugram has just four fire stations and one sub-station in Manesar.
Not enough trucks
“We have 22 fire vehicles, including fire tenders, rescue tenders and hydraulic platforms. We take help from private firms and developers. The DLF fire station has two fire tenders. We also take services of a fire tender each from Maruti Industries and Honda Motors. The Air Force and Wireless stations have two tenders each, which can be pressed into service in case of an emergency,” said senior Fire Service Officer I. S. Kashyap.
Gurugram has around 800 buildings as high as 90 metres, and some buildings up to a height of 180 metres are ready for possession along the Golf Course Extension Road, but the hydraulic platforms owned by the city’s fire department are just 42 metres in height.
- Skyscrapers of Millennium City pose a major challenge
- •Gurugram has 800 buildings as high as 90 metres , and some buildings as high as 180 metres are ready for possession
- • 42 metres maximum height of hydraulic platforms owned by the Gurgaon Fire Department
- •Strict implementation of fire safety norms has steadily brought down the number of fire cases in Gurugram from 1,002 in 2012 to 796 in 2015
“The current hydraulic platforms owned by us can rescue people till the 12th or 13th floor only. We need bigger hydraulic platforms and have sought platforms of various heights, including 70 metres and 101 metres. Meanwhile, we seek help from the DLF fire station, which has two hydraulic platforms of 90 metres height each,” said Mr. Kashyap, adding that the department has initiated the process to acquire seven hydraulic platforms.
But there is another problem: the maximum height that a hydraulic platform can reach is 110 metres, however, the Town and Country Planning Department is in the process of giving its approval to buildings that are more than 200 metres in height.
Fire safety norms
The focus of the department, therefore, remains on ensuring strict adherence to fire safety norms. “We can claim to have the best record on adherence to fire safety norms in Haryana. We use the latest GPS system to take live pictures to ensure transparency,” said Mr. Kashyap.
Industrial Model Township in Manesar, which houses over 700 industrials units, poses another challenge to the department with the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza proving to be a major hurdle in reaching a site quickly.
“We have set up a sub-station in Manesar to reduce response time, but it has only two fire tenders,” said Mr. Kashyap. Old Gurgaon poses a similar challenge as haphazard development and unauthorised construction stop fire tenders from reaching a spot quickly.
Mr. Kashyap said that strict implementation of fire safety norms has brought down the number of fire cases in the city from 1,002 in 2012 to just 796 in 2015.
A separate department
In a major fillip to the fire departments in the State, the Haryana government has decided to create a separate department and make separate allocation for them in the budget. “As of now, the fire departments work under the municipal corporations and committees, and face financial crunch. Now with the government planning to treat the department as a separate entity and allocate funds for them, it will help overcome the financial issues,” said Mr. Kashyap.
