Bhubaneswar, April 14: Industries in and around the city that have dumping yards will soon have to ensure that their fire-fighting measures are in place.

A major fire broke out at the dumping yard of the East Coast Railway’s carriage repair shop in Mancheswar on the night of April 5. Although no causalities were reported, it took over 60 fire fighters and eight tenders two days to completely extinguish the fire.

Speaking at the celebrations of the 69th Fire Service Day, additional director-general of police, fire services, Binay Kumar Behera said: “The yard was filled with wood and metal scrap, rubber products and other waste. Since the scrap was laced with lubricants and other combustible substances such as oil, the fire spread quickly and it took us time to douse completely,” said Behera. He said those who had their own dumping yards here should take precautionary steps and arrange for better fire fighting facilities.

Assistant fire officer Ramesh Majhi said the railways should have disposed of their scrap. Besides the industries and those having factories should follow the guidelines for solid waste management.

“Wood, metal scrap, rubber, garbage and chemical waste should be dumped separately so that in case of fire, the flames do not spread quickly. Besides, slums and other human habitation should not be allowed near dumping yards. The surroundings must be kept clean. If high-voltage wires pass through the yard or transformers are located nearby, necessary precautions must be taken,” said Majhi.

Behera hoped the rules under the Fire Services Act, 1993, which had been pending for the past 20 years, would be framed soon. “The government had some doubts about the set of rules we had sent them. We have taken care of these problems and hope the rules will be framed very soon,” said Behera.

On the same occasion last year, chief secretary Bijay Pattnaik had said the rules would be framed soon. The rules would empower fire service authorities to take tough action against violators of fire safety norms.

Behera said that at present the state had 183 functioning fire stations and another 113 stations had already been sanctioned, which would become functional shortly.

“Besides, 39 more fire stations are now under active consideration of the government and this will take the total number fire stations in the state to 335. All 314 blocks in the state will get one fire station each,” he said.