Imphal, April 14: As in other parts of the country, the Fire Service Day 2008 and Fire Service Week 2008 (April 14-20) observation have been kicked off today.

The observation is in remembrance of the 66 fire fighters who died in fighting an inferno at Mumbai in 1944 with the objective to create awareness among the mass about the risk of fire mishaps and preventive measures.

Even though the Fire Service Department was established in Manipur on April 14, 1957, limited awareness on the part of people about possible causes of fire mishaps, negligence and lack of adequate of man power, equipment and fire service sub-stations have been causing heavy casualty and loss at the time of fire mishaps.

According to the Fire Advisory norms of the country, there should a fire station for a distance after every 5/7 kms.

Each station should have at least 17 fire men.

However, there are only 16 fire stations for the whole State of Manipur.

These stations are located at Imphal, Moirang, Churachandpur, Thoubal, Kakching, Jiribam, Mayang Imphal, Tamenglong, Bishnupur, Moreh, Kangpokpi, Ukhrul, Senapati, Chandel, Sugnu and Singhat.

At these fire stations excepting Imphal, there are only about 7/8 fire men.

Even though the Imphal fire service station is capable of combating two fire accidents at the same time, no other station is equipped to fight two fire mishaps simultaneously.

Other than the Imphal station, other stations are equipped with only a jeep and a fire tender each.

Such acute shortage of manpower and equipment has been severely crippling these fire stations.

Speaking to these reporter, an official of the Manipur Fire Service Department asserted that it needs a strong public pressure to improvise and enhance the fire-fighting capability of the Manipur Fire Service.

At a time when the term 'Fire Service' is being replaced with 'Fire Emergency Service', the existing infrastructure of the Manipur Fire Service Department remains quite pathetic, he lamented.

According to the norms of the National Building Construction, for every building rising to 15 metres or above, it is mandatory to seek approval from the Fire Service Department.

However, the norm is never followed in Manipur, the official decried.

Conceding that fire fighters cannot restore a burnt structure, he appealed to the public to help fire fighters control fire mishaps and cooperate in their struggle to prevent a raging fire from engulfing other surrounding structures.

Comment