After KMC, Fire dept starts sanitation drive

Kolkata: The state Fire and Emergency Services department has started using its tenders fitted with plunger-type spray pumps for sanitisation of different public places across the state. Instructions have been issued to all existing 146 fire stations across the state to take up similar activities daily to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"The officials of our department are not only carrying out the job of sanitisation, they have also engaged themselves in creating awareness among people amidst the lockdown regarding social distancing, precautions to be taken if somebody ventures out due to some urgent work and abstain from spreading rumours about Coronavirus," said Sujit Bose, the state Fire and Emergency Services minister.

The respective fire stations have already prepared a time table for such activities in their respective jurisdictional areas. More than a dozen locations are being covered by each fire station daily. The water tanks fitted with the tenders that have such plunger-type 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.

"We are giving priority to hospitals, state government offices, market places etc where people have to go even during the lockdown," a senior official of the department said. There are 36 mini fire tenders with such plunger pumps and 110 medium-sized tenders with similar facility.

The department has already procured 10 potable sanitising spray machines that are being used for disinfecting interiors of buildings and offices. Such machines are already being used inside state government offices in Kolkata. "We are soon procuring more so that we can send them for use in North Bengal too," he added.

The urban local bodies and the police administration are working in their own possible manner.