ILL-prepared Pink City playing with fire

With no lessons learnt from past fires, Jaipur is still sitting on a bomb. Most fire fighting vehicles in Jaipur are in a bad condition. There is neither adequate staff nor proper training for the existing fire fighters. A fire cess of Rs 50 crore lies unutilised...

Jaipur: Pink City, a major attraction for domestic and foreign tourists and home to over 35 lakh residents, seems to be sitting on a ticking bomb as the fire department in Rajasthan's capital struggles to upgrade its equipment and manpower to fight infernos.   

Jaipur is abysmally short of fire stations, equipment and fire fighters. There are only 11 fire stations in the but the city is short by seven. While 850 firemen are needed, there are just 269 men manning the fire stations.

As per the National Building Code of India (NBCI), one fire tender is required for a population of 40,000. Jaipur has only 51 against a requirement of 100.

The scenario is even more scary in other cities. Nearly half of the state's 192 local bodies do not have fire station.

Jaipur fire department's inadequacies were exposed recently when a major blaze killed five people in a bungalow in upscale Vidyadhar Nagar colony.

Sources said the victims could not be saved despite three firemen reaching the tragedy site. The reason: the fire fighters were neither trained nor equipped.

According to witnesses, the three firemen came in slippers. They didn't have masks. Neighbours gave them shoes and wet handkerchiefs to help  them  enter the house. They also didn't have door breakers, bolt cutters, hammers or any other tools.

"The firemen couldn't even open the fire tender's ladder or fix the water jet's nozzle on the pipe," recalled a witness.

Former chief fire officer Ishwar Lal Jat said, "The whole system has collapsed. Most fire fighting vehicles are in a bad condition. There is neither adequate staff nor proper training for the existing one. It is a dangerous situation as lessons have not been learnt from past tragedies.."

Officials said that fire fighters alone should not be blamed. "Instead of conducting fire drills or checking equipment, the fire brigade staff has been roped in for the Swachhta Abhiyan," said a government official.

The fire brigade department is also working without a permanent chief fire officer and the key responsibility is being handled by an assistant fire officer.

The official apathy can be gauged from the fact that most fire tenders are 10-year-old and not a single tender has been purchased since 2013.

"Ten fire tenders purchased four years ago have been rendered useless due to a dispute between the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) and the disaster relief department," said a department insider.

"The authorities have also failed to use Rs 50 crore collected as fire cess over the past few years," he said.  

Soon after the January 13 tragedy in Vidyadhar Nagar colony, a candle march from the ill-fated house to a fire station at Bani Park was taken. Ironically, the marchers covered the distance in 45 minutes but the same distance was covered in one-and-half hour by the fire brigade after a call was made around 4 am on the day of the incident.

The disaster relief management machinery in the city failed to react to the distress calls of the victims as a phone at the district control room was defunct. Reason: A bill of Rs 750 was not paid by the authorities, forcing the BSNL to disconnect it.

Mayor Ashok Lahoty reached Vidyadhar Nagar fire station for inspection after the incident and accepted that the equipment were old and promised to improve the system. But, similar promises made during the IOC depot fire in 2009 in the city, that claimed 12 lives, had failed to change the situation.

After the Vidyadhar Nagar incident, a Congress councillor sat on dharna at JMC headquarters and demanded resignation of the mayor. Former MLA and spokesperson of the party, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas alleged that the JMC has become a den of corruption.

"They want their own men on key posts to have a say in purchases and contracts. This is why instead of a permanent chief fire officer, a junior officer is occupying this post," he said.

"It was unfortunate that fire tender reached one and half hours late at a distance of less than a km. The fire tenders were not ready. There was no water and firemen didn't have equipment. What is the point of opening a fire station without essential equipments?" he asked.

While the government agencies have a lot to answer, citizens too have to the share blame, said a municipal official.

The bungalow where the incident took place had no escape route.

 "Owners do not want to leave an inch of open space in their plots. The provision in building bye-laws to leave at least 10 sq. feet out of the total covered area of the plot is often ignored. Those who leave open space in the plot end up covering it with iron grill, leaving no place to escape," said Shankar Lal, a building contractor.

The situation is particularly alarming in the Walled City, admit fire fighters. "Whenever a fire breaks out in the Walled City, we use residential water tanks on terraces of high-rise buildings to sprinkle water on the blaze as our tenders cannot enter the area," said a fireman.

Playing with fire  

• Jaipur has 11 fire stations, while seven more are needed  
• The fire department has 269 firemen against a requirement for 850
• As per the National Building Code of India (NBCI), one fire tender is required for a population of 40,000. Jaipur has only 51 against a requirement of 100
• No fire suit is available
• Fire cess of Rs 50 crore collected over the years unutilised
• There is just one snorkel ladder to reach fires in buildings taller than 42 metres
• Most fire tenders are 10-years-old, no new vehicle purchased after 2013.
• No lessons learnt despite 2009 IOC depot fire in Sitapura industrial area that killed 12 people