The Mumbai Fire Brigade recently acquired five hi-tech rescue vans for five of its six regional command centres. The vans,currently parked at the Fire Brigade headquarters in Byculla,have been imported from Netherlands and cost about Rs 3.5 crore each. A senior fire official said 120 officials are undergoing training for operating these vans,which will be ready for use from October 12. The vans will help not only in fire-fighting,but also in dealing with urban disasters. The all-terrain rescue van,equipped with 105 different kinds of tools and equipment,will improve the technical aspect of disaster control operations,said the official. It has been imported from the Dutch firm Gemco Mobile Equipments Company. At present,the fire department has three such vans that were imported from Germany and Austria in 1981,but are outdated and ineffective,according to officials. The Fire Brigade receives about 55 calls on an average every day of which about 40 per cent are regarding fire and the rest are about other disasters like road and railway accidents,wall and building collapses,landslides,rescuing stranded birds and animals etc. We rush to the spot,but many times we do not have the technical and mechanical support required to deal with a situation effectively. The rescue van will have all the tools in one van, said the official. He added that the van can also assist in tackling chemical disasters. Some of the tools include spanners,hydraulic tools required for lifting heavy load such as overturned trucks,pneumatic tools required to cut metal wreckage while humans are trapped in it,chemical spill control equipment,thermal imagery cameras,medical first respondent kits,including stretchers,gas detection equipment,flood rescue equipment,inflating bags,etc. The van will also have a generator and over a 100 hand-held lights and light posts. Measuring eight metres by 2.5 metres,the three-metre-high vans have automatic gear transmission to reduce stress on the driver.
