India Has Less Than Half the Number of Fire Stations It Needs

A forest is seen on fire near Shimla, earlier this week. (Photo: PTI)

Indian cities and rural areas are facing shortage of fire stations as little less than 3,000 such units are operating against the requirement of over 8,500, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Forest fires recently destroyed nearly 4,000 hectare forest cover across 13 districts in Uttarakhand, killing 9 people and injuring 17 others. Major fire at Puttingal temple at Paravur in Kollam district of Kerala in April due to fireworks resulted in the death of atleast 102 people. Another massive fire gutted out in the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) building in Delhi destroying the National Museum of Natural History.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said, India has 2,987 fire stations against the requirement of 8,559, which shows a deficiency of 65 percent.

Fire station in New Delhi. (Photo courtesy: iStockphoto)

The Standing Fire Advisory Council, which has representatives from all states, has recommended setting up fire stations based on response time – five to seven minutes in urban areas and 20 minutes in rural areas.

He said the maintenance of fire service is a municipal function but the Centre pitches in with funds and training to improve the infrastructure and quality of manpower needed to tackle fire incidents.

The National Disaster Management Authority had issued guidelines in April 2012 to standardise the type of equipment and training of personnel to modernise and improve fire fighting capabilities in the country. The National Fires Service College, Nagpur provides training to fire officers in advanced techniques of fire fighting and rescue, keeping in mind changes such as industrialisation, growth of industry and expansion of urban areas.

Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs

(With PTI inputs)