Fire officials urge residents to take precautions and authorities to enforce safety regulations, reports Parvez ud din.
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00:00In Wadi-e-Kashmir, the monsoon season is at its peak, and in these months, we are seeing a positive increase in the number of cases of COVID-19.
00:09And according to the figures, in the first week of Sali Rawa, about 42 cases of COVID-19 have been reported.
00:17And even today, in Dargah Hazratbal, a case of COVID-19 has been reported, in which several houses have been evacuated.
00:25Why are these incidents more prevalent in the winter months?
00:30We have with us the Deputy Director of Fire and Emergency Services, Aqib Hussain Mir Sahib.
00:37Welcome to ETV Bharat.
00:39First of all, I would like to know that in Wadi-e-Kashmir, in these months, we are seeing a positive increase in the number of cases of COVID-19.
00:46What are the figures that you have shown?
00:50As you said, in the first week of this year, we have seen about 41 fire incidents.
00:57In Srinagar, there were 8 fire incidents.
01:01And last year, in 2024, there were a total of 7000 fire incidents in J&K.
01:10In which, the structural fires were about 44%.
01:13However, in the last year, there were more fire incidents.
01:17Because of dry spell in January and February.
01:21There was dry spell in the summers as well.
01:23And then, before December, there was dry spell.
01:28Because of that, the vegetation dries up a lot.
01:32And later, when the moisture comes out of things, it acts like a fuel.
01:37So, because of a small spark, there is a higher chance of a fire incident.
01:41So, especially because it is still winter season.
01:45And we know that people use heating gadgets to keep themselves warm.
01:51So, some people use gas or electric current based gadgets.
01:56But along with using these gadgets, we have to follow safety precautions.
02:02Especially, when we buy such gadgets from the market, we have to procure them from standard equipments.
02:07We have to avoid standard equipments.
02:09Especially, the ISI mark on every equipment.
02:14That is very important.
02:15That is very important, because some products are locally manufactured.
02:19And there are no quality tests done on them.
02:21So, by having an ISI mark, you are quite sure about its quality and safety.
02:26So, after that, when you procure such gadgets from the market,
02:29you should use these gadgets properly.
02:32Use them judiciously.
02:34And sometimes, due to our negligence, or sometimes we use such gadgets at night,
02:42because of which the fire risk increases.
02:45And the structures in Kashmir, generally the construction,
02:48even though we use concrete, which has a fire resistance,
02:51but along with that, we use excessive timber in the shape of paneling.
02:56So, because of that, the structures we have, they are prone to fire incidents.
03:00So, as soon as we make a mistake with these gadgets,
03:05because of that, these structures quickly catch fire.
03:08Mr. Akif, tell us, you said that we use LPG gas more,
03:12or we have blowers, and other equipment that we use for heat.
03:18Do you think that this is the reason for the number of fire incidents you have seen so far?
03:24Absolutely. There is no doubt about it.
03:26Because the majority of the fire incidents, 99% of the fire incidents,
03:31are due to human negligence.
03:33Only 1% is due to natural causes, like lightning, spontaneous combustion, etc.
03:38So, the 99% I am talking about, if I break it up,
03:42then 90% of the fire incidents are due to electrical short circuits.
03:50When you have an incident, people complain that the fire and emergency services do not come on time.
03:56Look, it is necessary to clarify a few things here.
03:59The response of the fire and emergency department is a communication-dependent response.
04:04Because if we are here right now,
04:07our department will not know that there is a fire incident,
04:11until you call us and give us information.
04:14And generally, when there is a fire, people first try to put out the fire themselves.
04:19Absolutely.
04:20They pick up their belongings.
04:22At the end, they remember that they have to call the fire service.
04:24And in the meantime, a lot of the golden hour, which we call the fire,
04:28goes away, due to which the damage is much more than it should be.
04:32So, we request people again and again.
04:34Because the action of the fire and emergency department starts when you give us information.
04:40So, you should remember the 101 number.
04:43So, when you call 101, our state control room will be called.
04:47And then the state control room will transfer the call to the nearest fire station.
04:51And based on the structure involved in the fire, we dispatch our men and missionaries.
04:56So, we request people there to keep the control room number of the fire service handy.
05:02Okay, when you don't reach on time, there is a difference of a few minutes.
05:06What is the delay of the department there?
05:08Look, there is no delay in this.
05:10The response of the fire and emergency department is very fast, it is very prompt.
05:14As soon as our control room receives a call,
05:19the next course of action that the department does,
05:22there is a call transfer time.
05:24Within a minute, our call is transferred to the nearest fire station.
05:28And from there, their turnout starts.
05:30And our turnout also happens in less than one minute.
05:33After that, when our car comes out of the station,
05:36after that, if it is daytime, there may be traffic congestion.
05:40In that, the traffic police cooperates, the police department cooperates.
05:43And especially requests from people.
05:45Because a lot of people still do not give way when they hear the siren of our car.
05:50So they have to understand these things.
05:52Or parked cars on the road.
05:54Absolutely, we see that especially at night hours.
05:57And especially at night hours, when we see wrong parking,
06:00it becomes very difficult to remove them.
06:02There too, we repeatedly request people to identify parking slots in their own areas.
06:07Because when we reach the spot, we get such cars.
06:10First they have to be removed, their owners have to be identified.
06:14Because in the golden hour of fire, if we do firefighting and rescue,
06:19we will be able to save maximum life and property.
06:21When there was a fire in Navata yesterday,
06:23the firemen and officers of our department did a great job.
06:28Because of this, we safeguarded other structures in the community.
06:32Mr. Akif, we know that you are also from here.
06:35There is no such facility in Garu that can put out a fire on time.
06:41But you also do annual audits, fire audits.
06:44You do it in commercial complexes or commercial offices.
06:49But there is no such facility in Garu.
06:51So what comes out of the fire audit?
06:54Absolutely, the fire safety audit.
06:57Because all the occupancies we have, the fire safety needs are different.
07:02For residential structures, the fire safety needs will be different
07:06than the fire safety needs for the commercial building.
07:09Say for example, for an industrial setup,
07:11there you have to apply more fire safety measures.
07:14Because the department does not have enforcement powers yet,
07:18we get on-demand requests to conduct a fire audit.
07:22We audit all the structures except the residential ones.
07:26Our safety officer goes there, the inspecting officer.
07:29Based on the hazard analysis, based on the National Building Code of India
07:33and the Bureau of Indian Standards, we audit it and issue recommendations.
07:37Now, there are some occupancies that do not implement those guidelines.
07:41Or even after that, it is unfortunate that after implementing them,
07:45there is no one to operate or maintain them.
07:48And after that, even if we have such equipment,
07:52when there is a fire incident, we generally see that it is of no use.
07:57Along with this, as I told you,
07:59there is generally no fire audit of residential structures.
08:02But again and again, we tell in our programs
08:04that at least keep two types of extinguishers in your house.
08:07One is a CO2 type fire extinguisher, which can deal with electrical fires at home.
08:14You can keep it near your electric panel board.
08:18Whenever there is an electric fault, you can use it.
08:21You can keep it of 4.5 kg.
08:23And along with this, there is ABC type.
08:25It has ammonium phosphate. It is of 6 kg or 5 kg.
08:28It seems that it deals with ABC type of fires.
08:32If we keep these two extinguishers in every house,
08:35their cost can be roughly 5,000, 6,000 or 7,000 rupees.
08:39So we have a very big property.
08:42You know that there is property worth crores.
08:45So if we procure such things one time,
08:48because after that we have to refill them.
08:505,000 to 10,000.
08:51Exactly. After that, we have to refill them.
08:53And the refilling cost is less than that.
08:55So because of that, our property worth crores can be safeguarded.
08:58So do you think that we take careless and lethal actions
09:02when we construct any structure?
09:04What are the special precautions?
09:05Absolutely.
09:06Look, there are many things in design.
09:08Look, the complete fire safety.
09:10In fire safety, we just have to keep the fire extinguisher.
09:12It is not fire safety.
09:13In complete fire safety, there are fire preventive measures,
09:16life safety measures, fire protective measures.
09:19If someone keeps a gas cylinder in their house, it is a hazard.
09:23So naturally, the risk increases.
09:26And the probability of fire increases.
09:28So we repeatedly tell people that there are fire preventive measures.
09:31Especially in your building construction,
09:33you can use non-fire resistant materials.
09:38These days, doors and windows are made of UPVC.
09:40Along with this, the highly combustible,
09:42inflammable or hazardous substances we store.
09:45If we don't do that,
09:46the likelihood of fire can be reduced.
09:49Or we will do electrical audits of electrical wiring.
09:52So when we do all these things,
09:54this is fire preventive measure.
09:55In life safety, we tell you how many exits you should have.
09:59For example, if there is fire in a building
10:01and the exits are complicated,
10:03the occupants will not know how to get out.
10:06And when they get out,
10:07if there is a staircase involved,
10:09they have an alternative staircase, etc.
10:11So we tell these things in life safety.
10:13Along with this, there are fire protection measures.
10:15And despite that, there is fire.
10:17Even though you are following the fire preventive measures.
10:19So do you have an extinguisher or a hose reel
10:22that you can deal with this fire?
10:24Because whenever you inform the fire services,
10:26obviously the fire department will take its time based on the distance.
10:29It may take them 5-7 minutes.
10:32But the initial time of the fire,
10:35when it can be controlled,
10:36that is also 5-6 minutes.
10:38And if there is a trained person in every house,
10:42if he has an extinguisher,
10:44then there can be a big emergency.
10:48When we talk about fire audit,
10:50you give NOC.
10:51Or you see for yourself.
10:52You check for fire audit.
10:54And there are those tools there
10:57that can initially control you.
11:00But when you present a report to different departments,
11:03what response do you get?
11:05Do you think that the same thing is repeated,
11:08which should not have happened after your audit,
11:11after your NOC,
11:12or even without giving NOC?
11:14See, the department does not issue NOC until
11:17there are fire safety measures in place.
11:20But there are many occupancies
11:22for which we did a fire audit
11:24and they implemented those things.
11:26And there are such occupancies
11:27which have dedicated teams
11:29that operate and maintain it.
11:31However, there are some occupancies
11:33whose department has not issued NOC,
11:35but the recommendations we issue,
11:37they do not implement them.
11:38And until they do not implement them 100%,
11:42the fire department will not issue NOC to those people.
11:45Our director, Shri Alok Kumar Sir,
11:48recently issued an advisory.
11:51I would like to tell people through your medium
11:55that whatever gadgets you are using in the winter season,
11:59first of all, as I said,
12:01check the ISI mark,
12:02do not procure substandard equipment from the market.
12:05When we go to sleep,
12:08we turn off such gadgets.
12:10Or when we go out of the house,
12:12we turn off our main electrical switch.
12:15Use MCBs properly.
12:17And especially the ones that catch fire due to LPG.
12:20We recently saw a suffocation incident in Pandraithan.
12:23Carbon monoxide is a very deadly gas.
12:25Because there too, we need to take care of ventilation.
12:28Such equipment,
12:29because the monsoon season comes every year.
12:31So every year when the monsoon season comes,
12:34before that, we need to pay attention to them,
12:37get them serviced.
12:39After that, we use them.
12:40And whenever we use them,
12:42use them safely.
12:43Follow the do's and don'ts.
12:45Mr. Mir, you talked to us and gave us your valuable time.
12:49Thank you very much.
12:50Thank you very much.