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Bengal

Fire dept lays stress on modernisation, safety awareness to curb extent of damage

Kolkata: The state Fire and Emergency Services department is laying equal emphasis on modernisation as well as awareness about fire safety to reduce the extent of damage caused by fire.

"We will be procuring 2,000 fire balls hopefully by this month and have also floated tender for a drone and a robot to boost our firefighting infrastructure. We are also adding a ladder of 102 metre height to effectively fight fire incidents at high-rises in the city," said state Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose at a Safety Symposium and Exposition organised by CII.

At present there are 5 ladders in the fleet of the department, the highest being 68 metres in height. "A number of multi-storey projects have come up in the city in recent times and some projects are also ongoing," Bose said. The department has already successfully held trial with the fire balls.

The minister said that the department has already put up a number of banners and hoardings in the city in connection with fire safety awareness and will take up a similar initiative by displaying such banners in other urban towns.

"We have chalked out a plan to provide training to 2,000 clubs in the city on basic firefighting and will also provide them some sort of equipment which will help them. We have found out that it is the local youths who start efforts of extinguishing fire as the Fire department reaches the spot after getting the call," Bose said.

The minister said that the department has actively engaged itself in fire audit and has already done such exercise in 810 establishments. "We are suggesting measures for improvement and the establishments with firefighting infrastructure deficiency are doing the needful," he added.

The department has also taken up pilot project at a few places in the city for underground cabling. Overhead cables dangling here and there in the city are not only an eyesore but are also potential fire threats.

"We have already started work at a few places to replace many such wires which are lying defunct and put them underground," the minister said.

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