Legacy secure, Delhi Fire Service looks for modernity

The Delhi government has allocated ₹110 crore for the reconstruction of the DFS hq, which has stood untouched since the 1960s

Every morning, Harinder Jeet Singh woke to the urgent clang of the fire bell echoing through the residential quarters behind the Connaught Place fire station. That bell, a sharp summons for fire tenders to rush into the city’s chaos, was the background score of his childhood. Now 62, Singh was born and raised in those quarters, the son of Joginder Singh, a fireman in the 1960s who served in what was then still a young and evolving force.

The Delhi Fire Service headquarters on Barakhamba Road in New Delhi. (RAJ K RA/ HT PHOTO)

Fire, he said, runs in the family blood.

In 1984, Harinder followed in his father’s footsteps into the Delhi Fire Service (DFS), joining as a young recruit and eventually rising to become a mobilising officer, stationed at the control room in DFS Headquarters. He retired two years ago, his entire working life spent within the walls of a two-storey building tucked a block away from Connaught Place—a building now poised to vanish.

 

Retired Delhi Fire Service officer Harinder Jeet Singh displays photos of the service from the 1960s(Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

After years of deliberation, the DFS headquarters will finally be razed to the ground. In her budget speech on March 25, Delhi’s new chief minister Rekha Gupta allocated ₹110 crore for the reconstruction of the building, which has stood untouched since the 1960s. During a visit to the site on April 25, she reaffirmed her government’s commitment. “The government has taken a significant and sensitive decision to approve the construction of a new, modern building,” she said, announcing that work would begin shortly in a ₹504 crore overhaul.

A fire department official confirmed that the proposal is currently with the Public Works Department (PWD), which must prepare the architectural drawings before sending them for approval to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). “The drawing is yet to be prepared,” the official said. “Even if the process is expedited, it will likely take six months to a year before the current building is finally demolished.”

Joginder Singh, whose son Harinder Jeet Singh later followed in his footsteps, standing at the front of a hand-operated fire tender with driver Parkat Singh and fire officer Albel Singh seated at the back during the 1969 Republic Day parade.

The news has sparked a sense of cautious optimism in the fire service community. “We are happy that the new government is planning for the development of DFS,” said DFS director Atul Garg.

A DFS official, on condition of anonymity, said that there has been a dire need to reconstruct the building as it has been declared dangerous by PWD. “The structure has become extremely weak. The furniture and fixtures are also decades old. DFS, over the last few decades, has become one of the most important agencies saving lives in the Capital but it’s ironic how the building we are operating from can arguably collapse anytime,” the official said.

An era gone by

But even as plans for a gleaming new structure are laid, a visit to the existing headquarters tells a quieter, grimmer tale—of age, neglect, and the weight of an institution left to decay.

A picture shared by Harinder Jeet Singh displays the DFS’ show of strength at a Republic Day parade in 1960s.

The DFS headquarters is spread across 10,000 square metres. The two-storey building houses over 500 employees, and an open ground serves as parking space for fire tenders and other equipment. It is not just a workplace but a crucible of Delhi’s firefighting history—a site steeped in legacy.

But the signs of deterioration are everywhere. Wooden shelves sag under the weight of yellowing files. Wall panels have cracked and crumbled. The paint on the ceiling peels in long, curling strips. The building’s outer façade, a cemented extended shade once meant to provide shelter from the summer sun, is broken, listing to one side. “If someone sees the office building from the outside,” said one official, “they won’t believe that this is the headquarters of the Delhi Fire Service—one of the most important emergency agencies in the Capital.”

Another staffer, who has worked there since 2000, chuckled grimly. “A lot of the furniture being used today was already here when I joined. I’m pretty sure this table will retire long after I do.”

Declared structurally unsafe by PWD six years ago, the building has never undergone reconstruction since it was first built more than six decades ago. There have been superficial changes—new coats of paint, patchy repairs, panels added here and there—but the core structure has remained unchanged.

Its long history

For Singh, the impending demolition carries the weight of memory. His own family’s association with firefighting in Delhi stretches back more than a century. His grandfather, Ishwar Singh, he said was among the first Indian fire officers during British rule, appointed in 1920. Back then, there were only two fire stations in Delhi—one in Old Delhi and the other in Connaught Place. “There were barely any fire calls,” Singh recalled. “The primary job of fire officers was to throw water on the roads to cool them down whenever VIPs came to CP.”

He recalled how firemen would sometimes sprint to answer a call in the middle of a bath; soap still lathered on their bodies. “It was a different time,” he said. “I stayed at the CP fire station until I was 15. My father was later posted to Karol Bagh and Jor Bagh before returning to CP.”

A demonstration in Najafgarh in mid-1960s to sensitise people against smoking in agricultural fields, as it may lead to fire.

There is no official archival history of DFS, but Singh, with the help of his late father, has spent years collecting old photographs and piecing together the agency’s past. According to him, the present headquarters was constructed in the early 1960s, after the establishment of nine other stations across Delhi—Jhandewalan, Jor Bagh, Shahdara, Pusa Road, Shahjahanpur Road, Chanakyapuri, Central Secretariat, Connaught Place, and Old Delhi. DFS, by then, had become a government agency, transitioning from its earlier control under the municipal corporation.

One of the photographs Singh preserved shows the DFS headquarters mid-construction, bare beams rising against the sky, taken sometime in the early ’60s. “There was no planned expansion at any stage,” he said. “Ad hoc measures were taken every time a major fire occurred. After every big fire, we scrambled to reinforce the service.”

The DFS website notes that by 1970, the department had 14 stations, including the training centre and headquarters. But the building that housed its nerve centre—the same building where Singh would later spend his entire career—remained largely untouched. “Furniture and fixtures changed a few times,” Singh said. “Panels were added decades ago. But the structure? It’s the same. It’s dangerous. It can fall any time. It needs to go.”

For others, the memories are just as personal.

AK Bhatnagar, who retired as a divisional officer in 2009 after 43 years in the DFS, also has a family legacy steeped in firefighting. His father, ML Bhatnagar, joined the service as a sub-officer in 1949. AK Bhatnagar was born that same year in Prayagraj—then Allahabad—and moved to the DFS quarters at CP as an infant. “I was just a few months old,” he said. “I’ve lived most of my life around DFS. I joined the service in 1966 as a telephone operator. Later, I became a sub-officer in 1980 and climbed the ranks from there.”

When Bhatnagar joined, the headquarters was still in decent condition. “As far as I remember, construction began in 1958. DFS was still under the municipal corporation then,” he said. Now 77, Bhatnagar is immobile and knows he won’t be able to witness the construction of the new building. “It’s unfortunate,” he said. “But it’s also long overdue.”

DFS today faces a dual burden—modernising a service critical to the safety of a sprawling megacity, and preserving the legacy of those who built it. The fire service, once tasked with watering roads for visiting dignitaries, now battles towering infernos, chemical leaks, and industrial disasters. Its calls have multiplied, and as has its responsibilities, yet its core infrastructure has remained static—until now.

As Delhi stands on the brink of remaking its fire headquarters, the project will not just clear space for steel and glass. It’s sweeping away decades of history, duty, and personal memory.

Harinder Jeet Singh, the son and grandson of firemen, who grew up in the shadow of its sirens, now watches from retirement. “There are so many stories in that building,” he said. “And soon, all of them will be dust.”