Fire safety in Agency area watered down

Khammam: State changed but not the fate of people living in the erstwhile four mandals of Khammam district that have been merged with East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. Though there has been a long-felt need for establishing an additional fire station in the Agency, the successive governments before and after the State bifurcation never lent an ear to the pleas of tribals.

• Successive govts turn a blind eye to the tribals’ needs
• Norms for setting up fire station given a go-by

Come summer, the firemen in the Bhadrachalam Agency have their work cut out. With just one single unit fire station for entire Agency and that too with inadequate staff and, no better infrastructure and modern equipment, it’s a herculean task for the firefighters to cover as many as 10 mandals (four of them in East Godavari).

The norms of fire safety say that there should be one fire station at least per 50,000 people. But hardly there is one per 3.75 lakh people in Telangana. In the united Andhra Pradesh State, the number of fire stations was 265. Of which 93 are located in Telangana. The lacuna not only reflects the successive governments’ commitment towards the region but also the incompetence of local public representatives.

Saturday midnight’s fire mishap at Chintarevupalli village in VR Puram mandal (in East Godavari) reiterates the need for another fire station in the Agency. As many as 20 thatched houses were gutted in fire due to non-availability of the only fire tender available at Bhadrachalam. The fire tender of the temple town was attending another distress call from elsewhere in the Agency.By the time the authorities had rushed a firefighter from Kothagudem to the spot, a lot of damage was already done. Though no one was injured in the mishap, there was extensive damage to property to the tune of Rs 25 lakh.

This was not the first time it happened. There are umpteen number of such incidents across the Agency. No less 534 fire mishaps alone in Bhadrachalam region in the last five years amounting to a property loss of at least Rs 3 crore reflect the magnitude of the problem.

If there is any distress call from Peruru in Wajedu mandal, which is located 140 km from Bhadrachalam, one could easily imagine the extent of rescue probabilities by the fire fighters.With AP government is still grappling with administrative problems in merged mandals, the East Godavari authorities have to depend on Bhadrachalam fire station because of its proximity to merged region. Now the hopes of people in the region pinned on the Telangana government’s budgetary allocation of Rs 61.81 crore for the improvement of fire services in the region.