Staff crunch plagues Ludhiana’s fire dept; more than 80% seats vacant

: The fire brigade of the state’s largest city, with an estimated population of 40 lakh people, has been reeling under an acute staff crunch, hampering the department’s operations and efforts to enforce fire safety norms amid a rise in fire incidents in the state’s industrial hub. Only 20% of the posts sanctioned for the regular staffers have been filled while 67 staffers have been outsourced. The fire brigade has only nine regular firemen against the sanctioned posts of 86, as many as 50 firemen have been hired on a contractual basis. There are only three sub-fire officers against the sanctioned posts of 15, out of a total of 18 posts of leading firemen, only 10 are filled. There is only one regular driver out of a total of 19, while 17 have been hired on a contractual basis. Fire brigade officials said that the number of sanctioned posts is low and as the population of the city has increased in the last few years, the sanctioned posts and sub-fire stations should also be increased. Currently, the city has five sub-fire stations- Gill Road, Sunder Nagar, Central fire station, Sunder Nagar, and Focal Point. A new fire station at Tajpur near the dumpsite is also under construction. Fire brigade in neighbouring towns also is ill-equipped and understaffed and many a times fire tenders from the city are rushed to the site. Just 18 drivers for 30 fire tenders Last month, a massive fire broke out at the city’s main dumpsite on Tajpur Road which took almost a week to be brought under control. As many as 10 fire tenders were pressed into service. Each fire tender requires at least 15 to 20 refills to douse the flames, giving firefighters who already reel under a crunch of drivers, a hard time. “Thankfully, except for a minor fire, no major incident was reported during that period; it would have been extremely tough to respond to the incident,” a fire brigade official said. On June 7, a massive fire broke out at a tool manufacturing unit at Focal Point in the late hours. The drivers who had just completed their shift were called again. Rule enforcement takes a hit Besides quickly responding to a fire outbreak, it is also under the purview of the fire brigade to conduct inspections of commercial establishments without fire safety measures and issue notices to violators. The fire department also issues a no-objection certificate to the applicants. With a majority of posts of sub-fire officers lying vacant, various activities including conducting inspections for NOC, surprise inspections and other paperwork, takes a hit, a fire brigade official said. As the staff of the fire department remains busy due to fire calls, it is not possible to conduct inspections, he added. Zonal commissioner MC, Neeraj Jain said that the fire department had recently announced that as many as 300 vacancies around the state will be filled. He added that it is expected that the process will be completed soon after which the situation will improve. Long wait for hydraulic platform As the city has seen a rise in the number of multi-storeyed buildings, a project to provide the fire brigade with a hydraulic platform to help in fire fighting operations was devised. Despite being in the pipeline for years, the ₹8.57 crore project under the smart city is yet to see the light of the day. Sanjay Kanwar, superintending engineer, said that the technical evaluation for the project has been completed and tenders will be put up in the coming days.