Kashmir Fire Incidents Surge: Negligence Major Factor, Claims Expert

ETVBHARAT

Fire officials urge residents to take precautions and authorities to enforce safety regulations, reports Parvez ud din.

Transcript

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.

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