Delhi fire chief identifies traffic congestion as biggest challenge

Contrary to the observation made by the Comproller and Auditor General (CAG) that the lack of new fire stations is affecting fire-fighting operations in the national Capital, Delhi Fire Brigade chief GC Mishra has identified traffic congestion as the biggest challenge confronting fire services, while playing down the need for new stations.

The average response time in fire incidents has been extended to up to over 9 minutes against 3-5 minutes, which is considered ideal, due to traffic chaos in the city, he said.

A CAG report tabled last week in the Delhi Assembly stated that the Delhi Fire Service is grappling with a manpower shortage of 42 per cent and requires 12 more fire stations as against its sanctioned strength of 70. The report said the response time of Delhi Fire Services (DFS) was not at par with the prescribed norms.

“Even if we come up with fire stations at a distance of 1 km, it will not reduce the response time to 3 minutes. Also, the land for building new facilities is not available in Delhi,” Mishra said.

He added: “What is the point in building fire stations in Najafgarh and Bawana, areas located in the fringes of the city. It is not going to reduce the response time,” he said. 

Earlier, we used to face problems only during peak hours, but now congestion period is increasing, he said. On a lighter note, he said the DFS is happy with the Odd-Even scheme, which had reduced the response time by around 25 per cent. “I can’t say whether pollution was reduced or not. The Odd-Even scheme enabled us to reach fire spots swiftly,” he said. At present, the DFS is functional from 59 fire stations in the city.

The rise in the number of fire incidents over the years has posed a serious challenge to the DFS. According to an official data, the number of fire incidents rose to 27,098 in 2015-16 from 23,242 in 2014-15. In May this year, fire stations received 115 calls daily as compared to an average of around 75 in 2015-16.

When asked how he plans to deal with the various challenges that his department was facing, Mishra stressed on “purpose-oriented planning” to ensure better delivery of service. “To beat the challenge posed by congestion, we have inducted vehicles with 3,000 litre water tanks and even introduced motorbikes equipped with nine-litre canister of compressed air foam, which is equivalent to around 100 litres of water,” he said.

He said bigger fire incidents still remain a challenge, for which conventional fire tenders that can store up to 20,000 litres of water, are required to be pressed into service.

Mishra suggested that the best way to bring down fire incidents is by ensuring that new buildings follow all 20 parameters laid down by the Delhi Fire Service Rules 2010. However, nothing can be done to ensure the safety of older buildings.

The Delhi Fire Services is also planning to digitise the system to maintain an online database of buildings, which have acquired no-objection certificates from the fire department.