‘Fire Service in Bandipora can’t deal with multiple fire incidents simultaneously’
Residents demand Fire tenders for Aragam, Aloosa, Arin villages
Suhail Rather
Bandipora, 15 Feb: The residents of Aragam, Arin and Aloosa areas of Bandipora district on Wednesday expressed concern over the government's cold response to the establishment of Fire Stations in their respective villages despite repeated pleas.
They said the villages have witnessed huge damages due to fire that could have been avoided if the fire tenders were available nearby. “Fire tenders have to travel all the way from Bandipora town to reach remotest villages which always prove a futile exercise as before reaching the spot, huge damages are caused due to fire,” residents said.
The residents said that the nearest fire station is at main Bandipora and at the time of fire incident, they have to wait for hours for fire tenders to reach the spot.
Nadir Nazir from Chitteybandy village of Bandipora said that they had approached the successive dispensations for establishment of a fire service station at Chitteybandy Aragam a number of times but to no avail. “Even the district administration started searching the location many times for the fire station but then they forgot it again,” he added.
He said in absence of fire tenders in the village, dozens of villages including chitteybandy, Aragam, Brar, Gunddachina, Malikpora, Frasdub, Kriselpati, Gojerpati C.bandy, and Gorihajin witnessed a loss of crores of rupees due to fire incidents that could have been saved.
He said a major fire broke out from the residential house of one poor man earlier this month in Aragam which engulfed the entire house in jiffy and goods worth lakhs of rupees were reduced to ashes.
An official of the Fire and Emergency Services said they have already approached the concerned higher ups for establishment of Fire stations in Aloosa, Arin and Aragam to ease the burden on district headquarters. “We can’t deal with multiple fire incidents simultaneously. Sometimes it may lead to a major disaster if fire tenders are attending one fire incident and at the same time fire erupted in some other area,” warned an official.
Officials said the issue was also raised in the District Disaster Management Authority meeting chaired by DDMA chairperson Dr Owais Ahmad.
The residents appealed to the Lieutenant Governor, Director General Fire and Emergency Service and Deputy Commissioner Kashmir to establish a fire service station in their area so that their genuine grievance is redressed.
