With the advent of summer and growing allegations of laxity on part of the fire department, plans are afoot to keep at least one small fire tender in each police station across the state and use latest technology to combat blazes.

Acting on the instruction of chief minister Nitish Kumar in this regard, the disaster management department is working to make the arrangement by end of this year, principal secretary of the department Vyasji told reporters.

The department is mulling to import hose pipes working on mist technology to put out fires. “These devices will be procured from western countries,” said a department officer.

“The plan will be implemented in four phases. The cost of the project cannot be divulged now. Fire incidents increase during summer, particularly in rural belts. The response time according to norms laid down by the National Fire Advisory Committee is 10 and eight minutes for rural and urban areas, respectively,” he added.

Once information regarding a fire arrives, the tender/unit of the nearest fire station has to leave within two minutes.

“There have been allegations about the units reaching late. However, it is true since the number of fire stations is less. The first phase of the plan will be centred in Patna. All police stations in the capital will have a fire unit each. These tenders would use the special hoses,” said the official of the department.

On the mist technology, the official said the system is used mostly in European nations. “The technology breaks the water flow into small droplets. The droplets then expand to absorb the heat and control the flames,” he said.