Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Put out the Fire!

December 29, 2007
City fire brigade is now better equipped to douse emergency fire
The city’s fire brigade has reasons to cheer up finally. After receiving adequate funds and approval from the municipal commissioner, Vijay Nahata, the fire the municipal commissioner, Vijay Nahata, the fire department is ass set to add three modernize water tenders to its existing fleer.
With the arrival of three new mini water tenders at the Vashi Fire department, in dousing fire at slums and CIDCO-constructed chawls and tenements would now become easier to tackle. “These fire tenders are the best to tackle household fire,” says chef fire officer, R T Mhatre.
The 2000-litre capacity mini water tender is equipped with high-pressure pump and low discharge facilities, which enables the rescue personnel to use water to douse the fire for 20 minutes at a stretch.
According to Mhatre, narrow lanes, extended verandas, dense population and inadequate civic amenities are some of the impediments while dousing fires at such places.
“It is extremely difficult to drive fire fighters and water tanders to the spot as lanes in slums are not more than two feet wide. In such events, these mini fire tenders would prove to be of mmense in reaching accident spot on time, since response and rescue operation time Period would now be much faster,” he says.
“Although there are 42 slums and over 100 clusters of tenements for Low Income Groups (LIG) scattered all over the city, not all of them have water round-the-clock, “says an official
“Now the department is becoming more scientific in its approach. For instance, while small fire tenders with ultra high pressure will save water and manpower, the high volume trailer pump can pump water at the rate of 10,000 litres per minute. The four container hook arm chassis will be of use in a number of ways,” says Mhatre.
According to NMMC, the city fire department received more than Rs 10 crore funds for the financial year 2007-08. The department has promptly purchased the three mini tenders from a Sholapur-based fire engine manufacturer, Devi Fire, at an estimated cost of Rs 51 lakh. Out of these three fire tenders, Airoli and CBD fire station will get one each, while Vashi head quarter will retain one. Having felt the need to upgrade their services and reach, the central fire brigade office has degun upgrading its fire stations in phases.

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