200 firemen to keep vigil over city during Diwali

Gurugram: The district fire department has deputed 200 firemen who will be working round-the-clock to keep vigil over the city during the Diwali weekend. A total

Gurugram: The district fire department has deputed 200 firemen who will be working round-the-clock to keep vigil over the city during the Diwali weekend. A total of 20 fire tenders, five each in four fire brigades, in Sector 29, Sector 37, Udyog Vihar and Bhim Nagar, will be on alert from October 25 to October 28, officials said.

“At least 100 firemen will be on duty at any given time. Firemen will be working in two shifts, 8 am-8 pm and 8pm-8am, for the four days. Barring five fire tenders which are being used for watering trees along high traffic density stretches as part of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) measures, the remaining 20 have been equally divided among the four brigades,” said IS Kashyap, assistant divisional fire safety officer.

Kashyap said that unlike previous years, where almost half the number of fire tenders were deputed next to locations where firecracker stalls had been legally set up, this year there is not a single firecracker stall in the city, which has allowed the fire department to spread its tenders evenly and have lower response time to areas which may report fire.

This year, the fire department is also more equipped to deal with a fire incident, with the recent addition of four floating pumps and six smoke extraction blowers, said Kashyap.

A floating pump can draw water from a nearby water body and refill the tanks of fire tenders, and it can also be used for draining out excess water from buildings. A smoke extraction blower removes toxic gases/smoke from stairs, shafts, and rooms of a building under fire.

“We procured the two items earlier this week, and have distributed them evenly among the four fire brigades. They couldn’t have arrived at a better time, as the incidents of fire are the highest on Diwali day. These will be extremely handy for our dousing and rescue operations,” said Kashyap. while referring to a recent fire incident.

On October 21, a fire broke out in a two-storey handloom godown in Sadar Bazar where firemen encountered major difficulties in the absence of a smoke extraction blower. There was only one point of entry and exit on the first floor of the godown where the fire broke out, and no other source of ventilation for the gases and smoke to escape.

The fire department had to delay their operations by one hour as they created a hole in the terrace before proceeding with dousing operations.

Last year, 28 incidents of fire were reported on the day of Diwali (November 7). In 2017, 13 incidents of fire were reported on Diwali (October 19).