Delhi: Modern equipment, lower response time among LG VK Saxena's suggestions for fire services

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant governor VK Saxena has asked Delhi Fire Service (DFS) to amend the old-fashioned fire safety rules before Diwali. The move would benefit a range of establishments, including small eateries, restaurants, nursing homes and showrooms, that do a lot of running around to get fire clearances.
In a meeting with DFS officials on Tuesday, Saxena discussed the opening of 16 more fire stations and inducting 130 fire tenders.The department was asked by Saxena to simplify the process of getting an NOC, but ensure fire safety was not compromised. A committee has been formed by DFS to identify such rules and make a presentation to the LG to suggest amendments.
DFS was asked to identify land where new fire stations would be constructed. Besides this, directions were also given to equip all fire tenders with GPS to track their movement, rope in NGOs/experts for proper training of firemen in animal and bird rescues, audit of deaths in blazes to assess shortcomings, requirement of additional resources to improve the functioning of fire department, filling of 1,112 vacant posts and expediting construction of the headquarters building at Connaught Place.
Emphasising on the need to rationalise and simplify the procedures for obtaining fire NOCs without compromising on safety parameters, the LG underlined that for any regulation to succeed in achieving the purpose, it had to be made compliable. Otherwise, it just becomes a tool for harassment of the common people.
Saxena said the procedural guidelines needed to be revised as they would benefit a large number of restaurants/eateries, nursing homes and several other smaller business units that fail to comply with the existing fire safety parameters due to archaic procedures. In some cases, they were forced to operate without the mandatory fire safety clearance.
This would benefit people at large by putting an end to harassment, unjustified delays and, at the same time, incentivise them to comply with the fire safety norms.
The fire department was asked to identify at least 50 fire prone locations in the city and deploy ambulances along with fire tenders to save time in case of an emergency or untoward incidents. While 12 locations have to be identified by Diwali, a detailed plan will be gradually chalked out for the entire city.
During the meeting, in which the chief secretary, principal secretary (home), DFS director and other senior officials were present, it was decided that the response time of fire tenders should be reduced to 2-3 minutes from the current 8-16 minutes. Since the city's population has grown considerably, the LG instructed to increase the number of fire stations from 64 to at least 80.