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Fire? Don’t dial 101
A “wireless addressable fire detection-transmission system”, which the Mumbai Fire Brigade is shopping for, will automatically connect a flat to the local fire station, police station and hospitals.
In a few months, you won’t even need to dial 101 to call the fire brigade if you’re trapped in a fire or other disaster situation in a Mumbai building.
A “wireless addressable fire detection-transmission system”, which the Mumbai Fire Brigade is shopping for, will automatically connect a flat to the local fire station, police station and hospitals.
This is expected to significantly reduce the reaction time of emergency services to these situations — and protect against crank calls.
The pilot project, estimated to cost Rs 10 crore, will begin later this year with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters, the A-ward office and the Fort fire station.
The entire project cost is Rs 120 crore.
After successfully installing and monitoring the system over a few months, the next phase is to make the system part of the city’s Development Control Rules, which in turn will make it mandatory in new buildings as well as existing ones.
The system is a three-tier sensor-based model, which will kick in not just during a fire but also in other mishaps, and will be connected to the local fire sub-station, the local ward office and the fire control centre at Byculla.
The system can detect everything from smoke and sparks to intruders and heat.
“The affected locations can be seen through a video wall, which will contain all contact numbers and a detailed city map, to be put up in every ward office and fire sub-station,” said N.B. Raut, wireless in-charge officer, Fire Brigade.
“We also get a lot of crank calls and there’s no way to judge any call’s authenticity till we reach the spot — it wastes a lot of our time. With this system, if there’s no beep on our monitor, we’ll know it’s a false call,” Raut added. The chief fire officer, P.D. Karguppikar, said cooperative housing societies will find the system affordable.
“The monitors will even tell you when the batteries need to be changed,” said Raut.
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