More than 90 fire service personnel deployed across districts are Covid +ve

Kolkata: More than 90 fire service personnel in different stations spanned across the state have tested Covid positive in the present pandemic situation.

The 3,000 odd personnel belonging to the state Fire and Emergency Services department in 146 stations across the state have been among the frontline workers who have been carrying out sanitisation in various parts.

The maximum number of fire services personnel who are presently Covid positive is from the North 24-Parganas district.

More than 20 firemen in different stations in the district have been found positive. Basirhat Fire Service station in the North 24-Parganas has had more than five positive cases.

The state Fire and Emergency Services department has been using its tenders fitted with plunger type spray pumps for sanitisation of different public places across the state.

The spray pumps are being loaded with a mixture of sodium hydrochloride, betadine solution, bleaching powder and phenyl and is being spread for disinfecting a place.

Sanitisation of major government buildings like Nabanna, New Secretariat, the state Assembly, government hospitals and Calcutta High Court have been taken up time and again by the Fire department.

"We have arranged for PPE kits, face masks and other protective gear for our personnel. They are being exposed to patients and common people almost everyday so the chances of them contracting the virus is very high," said a senior official of the department.

"Fire is an emergency service so we have to ensure that it is not jeopardised by any means.

"We are interchanging our personnel for running of the fire stations as and when required. The positive persons are being taken to

hospitals, quarantine centres and in home isolation depending upon their health condition," said Sujit Bose, Minister for Fire and Emergency Services.