Amdavadis don't care about fire safety, says the fire chief.
In a career of 26 years in handling disasters, MF Dastoor, chief fire official in the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Service (AFES), feels Amdavadis need to increase their awareness of fire, safety and disaster management. On Fire Service Day on April 14, Dastoor talks to DNA about Ahmedabad, fire safety and Amdavadis.
Ahmedabad and fire safety: Talking about statistics, currently, we have 12 fire stations and construction of another one is on. Also, work to revamp existing fire stations is also proceeding. The focus is on better parking and other space. We have also got permission to construct six new fire stations and work on two new ones is under way.
Amdavadis and fire safety: Now, if we talk about awareness in handling disasters and emergency situations, Amdavadis do not care much. They do not want to think that they are living in an unsafe building. In case they equip their building with fire safety services, they will not maintain it well. This might become hazardous. Neither are they upbeat about techniques to handle emergency situations. Citizens should learn to handle emergencies till the time fire and emergency teams reach the spot.
Best fire fighting case so far: The recent case of fire at the VS Hospital catheterization laboratory can be termed the best handled case. Reason being, there was no problem in conveying messages and so there was no trial and error based practice. Everything went in synchronisation -- interaction, locating fire etc, without any misunderstanding.
Worst experience while handling emergency: I will not go into specific cases. Usually building collapses are difficult to handle because curious people create a lot of hurdles. On-lookers come from nowhere and surround the scene, which creates difficulties for us - crowds may block the passage of rescue vehicles and road for ambulances' smooth path.
Why no women fire personnel in AFES?
Well, it has never occurred to us to involve women in operation work in fire and emergency services. In India, only in Chennai are there two qualified women fire fighters but they work in administration. Now that even politics has 33% reservation, we can think about making a policy to recruit women as fire fighters. But in that case, women will not be given any exemption in any type of work. They will have to climb heights and work like male fire fighters in the operation field!
Your advice to Amdavadis: We have termed the year, "Denizens' year ahead; go without fire incidents." Though it is our duty to attend calls and are there to help 24x7, we hope citizens prevent such incidents.
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