Fire dept to fit ladders to small firefighting vehicles

Kolkata: The Fire and Emergency Services department is trying to fit ladders in small vehicles for effective firefighting in the narrow lanes and bylanes where normal fire tenders with ladders are unable to enter.

“In recent times, small apartments (three-storied, four-storied) have come up in narrow lanes and bylanes. Hence, we are trying to fit small vehicles with ladders so that they can work in these narrow lanes,” Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose said in the state assembly on Tuesday.

The state government presently has six ladders that can go upto heights of 70 feet, 54 feet,42 feet and 30 feet but all of them are attached to the big-size fire tenders of the department.

Bose said that the state presently has 157 fire stations across the state and 48 new stations have come up since May 2011. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be inaugurating three new fire stations at Sabang (West Midnapore), Birati (North 24-Parganas) and new building of Howrah fire station on Wednesday. We are trying our best to complete the work of Laketown, Garbeta and Deganga fire station by this month itself,” Bose said.

For the modernisation of fire-fighting infrastructure, the minister said that four robots have already been procured and deployed in case of three fire incidents.

“We have already floated a tender for drones and have given walkie-talkies to the firemen.

The expenditure in modernisation has been Rs 237.15 crore since the 2018-19 financial year,” he added.