Fire dept fights staff shortage

Sample this: A major fire breaks out in the Sector 22 market and the fire brigade reaches the spot an hour after they have been contacted. Why? Well,because the fire department could not find the requisite number of firemen for the operation. Also,with a trained driver missing in action the fire brigade had to make do with an unskilled driver. This is exactly the sort of situation the Fire and Emergency department of the Municipal Corporation in the city can get itself into due to shortage of staff. The department is deficient in the required number of trained drivers and firemen majorly affecting its day to day functioning. As against the 48 sanctioned posts for drivers,27 lie vacant and out of the 166 posts sanctioned for firemen,only 119 are filled.

This is not all,sources revealed the extent to which the Fire department is crippled can be gauged from the fact that fire vans are often driven to affected sites by drivers from the health department due to unavailability of trained staff. These drivers do not possess any know how on operating fire tenders which includes various operations like increasing the required water pressure. The scarcity of firemen is bound to affect the efficient processing of the department which will be put to test in case of a major fire incident .

The fire department has seven fire stations in the city with its head quarters in sector 17. It currently has 36 vehicles,which includes 16 fire tenders.

“The staff crunch is badly felt when we have to go to douse the flames on any site,” a fireman stationed at the Sector-17 station said.