Firemen say motivated enough, risk won’t deter them
NEWDELHI: On Friday, after losing two of their own when trying to put out a fire in Vikaspuri, the firemen of the Delhi Fire Services headed out to respond to three more calls. Atul Garg, the current chief fire officer of central and south Delhi zone and the fire prevention wing, said that his team was motivated and no amount of risk ever slowed them down.
“People run away from fires, my men run towards it. What happened on Friday was a great loss, and unfortunately not uncommon in our line of work. Just two months ago, two firefighters lost their lives in Narela. But we keep working,” he said.
The unsung heroes of the country, firemen lead lives that have risk of injuries and mortality as a part and parcel of it.
Though critics have claimed that many of the 3,299 people affiliated with the Delhi Fire Services, who may be dispatched to a site of fire, are not provided with individual protective gear, officials with the department said that all the officers are provided with basic personal protection gears like helmets, fire repellent dungarees, gumboots, and breathing operators for smoke intensive sites.
AK Sharma, the ex-director of DFS spoke of how they had tried to get their staff upgraded versions
of the uniform, which were imported from Europe, to ensure better safety from flash fires. The high rates meant that they got only around 200 suits, and had three to four suits on every vehi-
cle to be shared by the staff.
Even these were later discontinued as it was not made for India’s tropical climate, and the firefighters said it made movement “cumbersome”, Garg said.
Sharma and Garg reiterated how the latest fatality was because of a “blast” and no amount of gear would have protected people from it. The only way may be prevention.
“The most common cause of fires in Delhi is carelessness. Electricity is not a problem if handled properly. Cylinders are not the culprits. It is people’s attitudes,” said Sharma.
The pressures of the job are usually a bigger burden for their families, according to some.
“On average we get around 130-140 calls daily during the summer, but this time of the year, we get around 80-90 calls daily... Whenever I am called to work, my wife does not sleep,” said Garg. RG Meena, brother of deceased HS Meena, said that the family is shattered by his untimely death. They have taken the body for cremation to their hometown at Alwar in Rajasthan. He lived in Shyam Vihar Phase-1 in Najafgarh with his wife and three kids.
“His children — two daughters and one son — all in the age group of 5-15, have still not come to terms with the incident,” he said.