Fire department decides to deploy fire tenders across nine key spots in city

To reduce response time, ensure swifter dousing of fire and make rescue operations effective, the Gurugram fire department is planning to deploy fire tenders across

To reduce response time, ensure swifter dousing of fire and make rescue operations effective, the Gurugram fire department is planning to deploy fire tenders across nine key points in the city, said officials on Monday.

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Presently, fire tenders are situated in the city’s four fire brigades in sectors 29, 37, Bhim Nagar and Udyog Vihar.

Fire department officials said that the four locations do not provide proper coverage of the city, resulting in fire tenders often taking more than 25 minutes to reach far-off locations, such as Golf Course Extension Road, Badshahpur-Sohna stretch, and Dwarka Expressway.

Fire department officials have identified Vatika Chowk, Palam Vihar, Rajiv Chowk, Mahavir Chowk, Kherki Daula toll plaza, Hero Honda Chowk, Ghata T-point, Basai Chowk, and Dwarka Expressway as the key spots for placing fire tenders. As per officials, the placement of fire tender at Vatika Chowk is likely to becoming the first such measure.

“A private mall in Badshahpur, near Vatika Chowk, has approached us to use their space for positioning a fire tender so that response time in reaching areas along Golf Course Extension Road and Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) is reduced significantly. No formal approval is needed in this matter and we are looking to station a fire tender at the spot by January next year,” said IS Kashyap, assistant divisional fire safety officer (ADFSO).

The lack of quick response has proved to be fatal in the past. In October 2018, it took firemen more than 15 minutes to reach a condominium in Sector 69, located around five kilometres from Vatika Chowk, which resulted in the death of a 33-year-old woman.

Kashyap said that at least two firemen and a driver are needed to be stationed near each fire tender in eight-hour shifts.

“For the Vatika Chowk initiative, we will allot nine staff members on a rotational basis. However, since we are heavily understaffed, we cannot stretch our resources more than this. A proposal has been sent to the Haryana fire directorate in Panchkula for hiring around 40 new staff members and is awaiting approval. Upon their induction, we will place the newly inducted firemen and existing staff members along with the fire tenders at the remaining key areas,” said Kashyap.

As per fire department officials, Gurugram has a requirement of at least 400 personnel to oversee fire rescue operations. The Gurugram fire department currently has exactly half this manpower.

Recently, on Diwali, the fire department had adopted a similar strategy of placing fire tenders across various points in the city, which proved to be beneficial.

On November 14, a fire tender located at Vatika Chowk reached the site of fire in Sector 50 within three minutes instead of the usual 20-25 minutes.

Satyawan Samriwal, assistant divisional fire officer (ADFO), who was transferred to the Sonipat fire department on Friday, had earlier prepared this strategic plan. As per Samriwal, in urban areas such as Gurugram, the response time should not exceed 15 minutes and be ideally be under 10 minutes.

“The city has expanded extensively over the past 10 years, especially in the newer sectors (58-115) and areas located along SPR and the Dwarka Expressway. The existing fire brigades are far removed from these areas and the response time is nearly double than the ideal time limit. Hence, a plan had been compiled to place fire tenders at strategic locations to address this problem,” said Samriwal, adding that the fire department had discussed the option of stationing fire tenders at community centres with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and a few private developers as well.