City to get more fire stations

The Pune city which has just nine fire stations at present needs nearly 43 fire stations,according to the national guidelines of fire safety.

The Pune city which has just nine fire stations at present needs nearly 43 fire stations,according to the national guidelines of fire safety. Spread over 430 sq kms,the city should have one station every 10 sq km,and this has not been adhered to which is increasing the risk factor in most parts of the city,said an officer of the Fire Departmnet.

An effort has been mooted by the Urban Development Department in association with the Maharashtra Fire Services and the local bodies to map strategic locations to increase the number of fire stations in the city. A Rs 285-crore plan has been readied for providing more fire services to the state.

The effort is to ready a master plan with the help of all civic corporations and councils to identify areas for fire stations. Even as urban areas have fire stations,it is the rural areas within the corporation limits which has been severly ignored. The plan will identify these locations, the officer the Fire Department said.

There are 247 municipal bodies,of which 22 are corporations,221 councils and three are nagar panchayats. While 144 of them have fire services,103 are deprived of it. The fire department has asked all of them to map respective areas and locations.

Chief fire officer S D Ranpise said the nine fire stations in the city are in urban areas. We need above 40 fire stations to tackle any kind of fire in any part of the Pune city, he said.

We have readied a detailed plan for every area. We started with the areas which did not have it at all. Ninety-two civic bodies do not have any fire service, the official said.

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