The Gurugram Fire Department is struggling with shortage of equipment. The millennium city has around 810 buildings as high as 90 metres and some buildings are over 180 metres but the hydraulic platforms owned by the Gurugram fire department are just 42 metres in height. Hence, badly equipped fire department has been banking upon Maruti, Honda and DlF who own better fire fighting equipment.
The Industrial Model Township (IMT), in Manesar has more than 700 industrial units and is poses serious challenge to the fire department with the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza proving to be a major hurdle in reaching to sites quickly.
The population of Gurugram is over 15 lakh but fire department has just four fire stations at Sector-29, 37, Udyog Vihar-I, Bhim Nagar and one sub-station in Manesar.
“We have 23 fire vehicles, including fire tenders, rescue tenders and hydraulic platforms. Also, we have set up a sub-station at Manesar with two fire tenders. The department is having equipment crunch and many occasions we have to depend on the fire-fighting system of private agencies,” Senior Fire Service Officer IS Kashyap told The Pioneer.
The biggest handicap for the city fire department is the absence of hydraulic lift that can reach high rises in event of emergency but the hydraulic lift with the department is just 42 meters in height. On the other hand DlF has two hydraulic platforms of 90 meters height each.
According to the information the hydraulic platforms owned by the department rescue people till the 12th or 13th floor only. “We need bigger hydraulic platforms and have sent our proposal to the higher authorities of two hydraulic platforms of 70 metres and 101 metres. Once we get this equipment will increase our capacity to fight fire till the 28th floor,” Kashyap said.
“Also, the Air Force stations in Gurugram have two tenders each, which can be used in service in case of an emergency,” Kashyap added.
According to the sources, the Town and Country Planning Department is according permission for buildings more than 200 metres in height while the maximum height of hydraulic lifts can be 110 metres.”Now the focus of the Fire Department is to implement law of fire safety to avoid mishaps,” Kashyap added.