Only 33 Fire Stations, Instead Of 44 And 88 Pumping Units, Instead Of 127
Mumbai : Just a few weeks after a woman lost her life in a blaze in Nagpada, it has now come to light that the city’s fire brigade is short of fire stations as well as fire tenders. As against the prescribed 44 fire stations, Mumbai has only 33, while there are only 88 fire tenders, as against the requirement of 127.
In a startling revelation, the FPJ has found out that the city’s fire-fighting preparedness falls way short of benchmarks set by the Standing Fire Advisory Council (SFAC). The SFAC, which is an apex body to advise the government on fire services, was constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in 1955. Its last meeting, the 36th one, was held in December 2014 in Goa. Although its guidelines are not legally binding to the state or district administration, they are benchmarks based on several factors and are morally binding on them, since the Fire Safety Act, 2006 does not go into specifics.
prescribes that there should be one fire station per 10 sq km in urban areas and per 50 sq km in rural areas. Thus, with an area of 437 sq km (under the BMC), Mumbai requires around 44 fire stations, as against the existing 33. Similarly, the SFAC prescribes that there should be one pumping unit (including fire tenders and water tankers) per 50,000 people, for every three lakh population (this means six units are necessary). Besides, one additional unit per one lakh population or a fraction thereof, plus a reserve of 20 per cent of the total units are prescribed. This means, for a population of 1.2 crores, the city needs around 127 pumping units, whereas it only has 56 fire tenders and 32 water tankers currently, bringing the total to 88.
The recommended response time by the SFAC, that is, the time required for a fire engine to reach the site is five minutes in urban areas and 20 minutes in rural areas.
The Mumbai Fire Brigade claims that their current response time is 10 minutes on an average, which they want to bring down to seven-eight minutes.
“These are just advisory guidelines and not the law. I agree that we don’t have enough fire tenders or even fire stations. That is why we are coming out with 18 Mobile Mini Water Tenders soon. Besides, we are aiming to have 23 new fire stations across Mumbai in the next five years, which will bring our total to 56, as against the prescribed 44,” said Prabhat Rahangdale, deputy chief fire officer for the city.
In fact, a proposal to replace 16 aging fire tenders was recently placed before the BMC’s standing committee, but was kept pending. Some of these tenders are 28 years old. The Mumbai Fire Brigade hasn’t bought a single fire tender in the last three years for want of the mandatory Euro IV variety. Once approved by the standing committee, it will be at least a year before these 16 fire tenders are replaced.
Indrani Malkani, a member of the NGO V-Citizens’ Action Network (V-CAN), has been following this issue closely. She says, “In a city like Mumbai which faces a space crunch, lots of plots earmarked for fire stations have been encroached upon, for example, the plot next to Priyadarshini Park on Napean Sea Road. And surprisingly, citizens are also sceptical about having fire stations in their area. Such encroachment of land is criminal.”
Tanvi Deshpande
