Patna, May 8: Around 300 huts in the slum area along the railway tracks behind the secretariat were ravaged in a major fire on April 22. It took nearly five hours to bring the fire under control.

A similar incident occurred a week ago at Fathuha industrial area where a plywood factory was engulfed in fire and it took hours for fire control vehicles to reach the site.

The state capital is ironically served by only four fully functional fire stations. A fire station at Phulawarisharif does not have any land or building and is being serviced from the Kankerbagh fire station. Another fire station at old secretariat is under construction.

In order to improve the dismal state of fire services, Patna would soon have seven new fire stations. New stations are proposed at Sipara, Patliputra Industrial Development Area, Malsalami, Agamkuan, Fatuha Industrial Development Area, Bihta and Khagaul. These new fire stations are proposed in a gazette notified by urban development department (UDD) on March 30, this year. The gazette titled “Fire Hazard Response and Mitigation Plan” for Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) was prepared in consultation with Bihar Fire Services and has been submitted to the central government to seek grant under the 13th financial commission.

“The gazette has been notified in order to fulfil one of the requirements for sanction of general performance grant under 13th financial commission for local bodies having more than 10 lakh population in every state. Once the central government sanctions the funds stated under this scheme then these would be allotted to the PMC, which would probably assign Bihar Fire Services as the executing agency. The scheme is expected to be implemented in the current fiscal,” said Arvind Kumar Singh, deputy secretary-cum-director, urban local body, UDD.

Fire Hazard Response and Mitigation Plan is a mandatory criterion for sanction of general performance grant under 13th financial commission for local bodies having more than 10 lakh population in every state. PMC happens to be the only local body in Bihar, having population over 10 lakh and thus this plan is mandatory for availing funds from the central government.

Earlier, Bihar Fire Service has assisted UDD in drafting this plan by assessing the requirements of the department for reducing the response time to the minimal level. “On directives of the state government, we drafted a scheme for a total projected outlay of Rs 17.7 crore for seven new fire stations in and around PMC area and also for purchasing equipment to be used in these fire stations. With the new fire stations, the response time would come down to three to seven minutes,” said Ramesh Chandra, Bihar state fire officer.

The gazette mentions the existing system in fire services in PMC area is basic and not in line with prescribed standards. Even by the 2001 population standards, there is a shortage of 27 firetenders/fire-fighting vehicles. At present there are six fire stations in Patna but in reality only four are functional. There is also a shortage of employees. According to a sanctioned strength of five fire station officers, only three have been filled, against 13 havildar drivers only 10 are filled. Moreover, against 65 sanctioned posts of fireman, only 38 have been filled, leaving a vacancy of 27 firemen. The state fire officer on the other hand, claims that the department is filling the vacant positions using home guards and fresh appointments.

Further, the proposed/adopted fire mitigation measures would include awareness generation, training and capacity building of people at all levels from administration to grassroots level. Besides, regular evacuation drills and mock drills are also proposed. The mitigation plan also gives guidelines for ensuring stricter enforcement of relevant rules and regulations, including PMC building byelaws, control of spread of slums and informal squatter settlements. Provisions for shifting of storages and hazardous units from residential areas are also suggested.

Further, the state emergency operation centre will be provided with V-sat facilities for unfailing connectivity with the rest of India during any disaster. Additionally, familiarity with warning systems and regular drills to respond to such systems and specific dos and dont’s for the community during the disaster situation have also been suggested and agencies are to be assigned to undertake such tasks. Finally, a need to develop a geographical information system (GIS) on a scale of 1:1000 is also observed under Fire Hazard Response and Mitigation Plan.