Fire services dept to get hydraulic platform

Vijayawada: Efforts made by the State Disaster Response and Fire (SDRF) Services Department Krishna district officials to get hydraulic platform are paying dividends. Vijayawada city will get hydraulic platform which will be used to combat the fire accidents in the high rise buildings. Since bifurcation of the state, construction of multi-storeyed buildings with G+15 to G+20 floors has been increased in and around Vijayawada and along the national highway up to Guntur.

Though most of the new buildings are constructed as per the norms of the fire department, the SDFS has decided to be on high alert to combat the mishaps and save the lives of the people. In case of fire breaks out in these multi-storeyed buildings, the Disaster Response and Fire Services department of Krishna and Guntur districts have no advanced equipment to contain the fire and minimise the damage. The fire fighters have to depend on the age-old ladders to reach the top floors and combat fire.

In this backdrop, the Krishna district fire department officials have been asking the state government for many years to sanction hydraulic platform to the city. Finally, the government had sanctioned the sky lift to the city. Director of State Disaster Response and Fire services Department K Satyanarayana informed The Hans India that so far only Visakhapatnam city has such facility and now Vijayawada, too, get the hydraulic platform soon. He said data collected by the department for the past 10 years has revealed the buildings without NOC of fire department are prone to accidents.

He said the building owners or apartment owners must install fire extinguishing equipment and take NOC for the safety of inmates. He said multi-storeyed buildings, including high rise apartments, hotels and commercial complexes, are increasing in and around Vijayawada and the stretch between Vijayawada and Guntur so the department is also gearing up to combat disasters in the high-rise buildings.