City fire service department ill-equipped to face natural challenges due to dated equipment, manpower shortage
The city, during its recent tryst with terror emerged with flying colours, but the blues of the blue-uniformed force, the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Service (AFES), are far from over. It finds itself ill-equipped to meet the challenges thrown up during monsoon.
Even at the time of the serial blasts, mercifully, there were no multiple incidents of fire. One can only imagine the devastation had there been fires at all the blast sites. The help of the AFES was required to control only one or two spots like the L G Hospital. This means that the terror situation did not throw up the need for a large number of fire brigade personnel. But had there been any such need, it would have been a far bigger disaster.
Theoretically speaking, there is no shortage of staff in the AFES at any given point of time on a normal day. This, despite the fact that out of a strength of 435, only 326 staff are presently on the rolls, leaving the rest 109 posts vacant for years. With each retirement, replacements are hard to come by and the situation is precipitating with each passing day.
According to sources in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), there is a dire need for recruiting at least 275 personnel in the fire services to augment its strength to meet the mega city requirements. The current strength is barely enough to run nine fire stations, but it runs 12 stations with these 326 personnel. Sources said if the fire services department was serious about opening the promised seven fire stations to serve the new areas then it would have to first look into the shortage issue of 600 personnel. It is often argued by senior officials that fire personnel have nothing much to do on normal days and that they just while away their time at fire stations.
To this, a fire service member said, "A war is something that does not erupt every day, but takes place once in a blue moon… does this mean we can afford to be lax about our security preparedness? Jis din jaroorat padegi us din kuchh nahin milega (Nothing will be available when the need would actually arise)."
Capt Dilipkumar Mahajan, Deputy Municipal Commissioner and the in-charge of fire services, has, however, ruled out any problem that the present shortage could cause. "There are 109 vacancies as of now, but against that, we have a volunteer force of 400 who are considered full-fledged firemen," he said, adding that they are neither on the regular rolls nor are they non-existent.
There are nearly 400 fire service volunteers cooling their heels in the hope of getting regular appointment after due procedures some day. They were asked to prepare themselves for a physical test in June this year and were given three months' time for preparation. But nothing has moved till now on that front.
Courtesy : www.indianexpress.com
The city, during its recent tryst with terror emerged with flying colours, but the blues of the blue-uniformed force, the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Service (AFES), are far from over. It finds itself ill-equipped to meet the challenges thrown up during monsoon.
Even at the time of the serial blasts, mercifully, there were no multiple incidents of fire. One can only imagine the devastation had there been fires at all the blast sites. The help of the AFES was required to control only one or two spots like the L G Hospital. This means that the terror situation did not throw up the need for a large number of fire brigade personnel. But had there been any such need, it would have been a far bigger disaster.
Theoretically speaking, there is no shortage of staff in the AFES at any given point of time on a normal day. This, despite the fact that out of a strength of 435, only 326 staff are presently on the rolls, leaving the rest 109 posts vacant for years. With each retirement, replacements are hard to come by and the situation is precipitating with each passing day.
According to sources in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), there is a dire need for recruiting at least 275 personnel in the fire services to augment its strength to meet the mega city requirements. The current strength is barely enough to run nine fire stations, but it runs 12 stations with these 326 personnel. Sources said if the fire services department was serious about opening the promised seven fire stations to serve the new areas then it would have to first look into the shortage issue of 600 personnel. It is often argued by senior officials that fire personnel have nothing much to do on normal days and that they just while away their time at fire stations.
To this, a fire service member said, "A war is something that does not erupt every day, but takes place once in a blue moon… does this mean we can afford to be lax about our security preparedness? Jis din jaroorat padegi us din kuchh nahin milega (Nothing will be available when the need would actually arise)."
Capt Dilipkumar Mahajan, Deputy Municipal Commissioner and the in-charge of fire services, has, however, ruled out any problem that the present shortage could cause. "There are 109 vacancies as of now, but against that, we have a volunteer force of 400 who are considered full-fledged firemen," he said, adding that they are neither on the regular rolls nor are they non-existent.
There are nearly 400 fire service volunteers cooling their heels in the hope of getting regular appointment after due procedures some day. They were asked to prepare themselves for a physical test in June this year and were given three months' time for preparation. But nothing has moved till now on that front.
Courtesy : www.indianexpress.com