In 1994 BS, Nepal’s first fire brigade, Juddha Fire Brigade (JFB or Juddha Barun Yantra), was established. The fire brigade comprised 15 soldiers who had been recruited from the Nepal Army to serve as firefighters. In 2001 BS, fire brigades were also established in the districts of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. [break]
For the next 30 years, the fire brigades operated with the fire engines they had received on their inception.Yet another disaster promoted for an upgrading in their equipment. In 2030 BS, a big fire broke out in Singha Durbar. Following this incident, several new Deutz Magirus fire engines were bought. Of which, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur fire brigades received one each.
After this, the fire brigades had to wait until 2042 BS, the year Kathmandu hosted the SAARC Summit, for new fire engines. Three new fire engines were given to the fire brigades that year. The government has not purchased any fire engines after 2042 BS.
Since then, the fire engines of these fire brigades have grown old and settlements in Kathmandu Valley have increased. In the past three years, Kathmandu District City Development Committee has approved to build 59 buildings, 42 of which are more than 10 stories high.
Now, it’s the height of the buildings that worry the fire brigades.
“The apartment buildings of today are the fire brigade’s biggest anxiety,” says Lila Raj Gachha, chief of JFB in Kathmandu. Although the fire engines that are in operation in Kathmandu can reach ten stories, provided that ladders are used, the electric poles and mesh of wires in many places make the use of ladders not always feasible. The other two fire brigades in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur are equipped to hose fires only up to four and six stories respectively.
Fire brigades on sick bed
The Valley’s fire brigades have been working with unreliable fire engines for years. The best fire engine that was gifted to JFB Kathmandu by the Japanese government six months ago is also not a new vehicle. It was used for several years before the handover. This fire engine can carry a maximum of 1,500 liters of water at a time, which is not sufficient to control even a moderate fire. The other fire engine they have, which has a capacity of carrying 4,000 liters of water, is in a decrepit state.
“The bigger fire engine is 26 years old. It may break down on the way. It cannot climb steep roads,” says Sesh Kumar Tiwari, a fireman at the Kathmandu Fire Brigade (KFB).
The condition of JFB Lalitpur is even more pathetic. It has just one fire engine, with a capacity of carrying 2,400 liters of water. But after operating for 35 years, it needs constant repairing. Last year, it broke down and was out of operation for three months. The fire brigade does not have water supply at its office.
“We have a 10,000-liter water storage tank, but we get no water here,” says Babu Krishna Karki, commander of the Lalitpur Fire Brigade (LFB). They have to go to Bhaisepati for water. At times, when water is not available in Bhaisepati, they have to go as far as Chuchchepati for water. For their own needs, the employees at the LFB rely on rainwater.
“You can say that a fire brigade does not exist in Bhaktapur,” says Purshottam Khadka, commander of JFB Bhaktapur. The only fire engine they have was actually a vehicle for carrying medicines. It was gifted to the Siddhi Memorial Foundation (SMF) by Germany’s Hachenburg Municipality in 2059 BS. The SMF donated it to the fire brigade. The vehicle was then modified by auto mechanics, mostly fitting in parts from older fire engines.
“The pump in our fire engine that draws water is from the fire engine that we received in 2001 BS. There is no guarantee that our fire engine will function in the event of fire,” says Khadka.
Although water is indispensable in controlling fires, it is ineffective against fires that are burning on substances such as petrol, kerosene, cooking gas, and paint. Kathmandu Valley’s fire brigades do not have the equipment to deal with such fires.
“If there’s a fire at the petrol pump near Sundhara, all we can do is watch from Tundikhel,” says Tiwari. Although chemicals are available which, when mixed with water, are more effective against large fires, Nepal’s fire brigades are still reliant on water.
“In this modern age, when new equipments for fire control are available, we’re still following the water-on-fire strategy. It is difficult to extinguish a cylinder of cooking gas with water. Imagine what would happen if a gas depot caught fire,” says Khadka.
Over a year ago, the Home Ministry handed over responsibility of the KFB and LFB to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office (KMCO) and the Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City Office respectively. Bhaktapur City Office refused to take over the responsibility of the district’s fire brigade. According to the agreement between the Home Ministry and the three fire brigades, the former had promised to provide two new fire engines each to the latter. But the Home Ministry hasn’t honored the agreement. Nor has it provided the fire brigades with the funds stated in the agreement.
Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur have just one fire brigade each. This means one fire brigade, with its small team of firefighters and limited equipment, has to cover an entire district. Moreover, the Bhaktapur Fire Brigade (BFB) has to respond to fires in the districts of Kavre, Sindhupalchowk, and Dolakha as well. Operating from just one place significantly reduces their efficiency in controlling fires.
“The key to controlling a fire is getting to the scene on time. We need fire brigades in different places throughout the city so that they may get to the fire as soon as possible,” says Tiwari.
Fire brigades often find themselves stuck in traffic jams. Their vehicles are too big to enter narrow streets—factors the public fails to understand. “We have been stoned at times for being late,” says Gopi Lal Shrestha, the driver at KFB.
The need for more fire brigades is understandable, given that a total of over 300 cases of fire in the Kathmandu Valley were recorded in the past 12 months. Out of these, several took place in dense urban areas: Lal Durbar in Durbar Marg and Nardevi, in which three houses burned down; the Nepal Bank office in New Road; and the latest in Triveni Complex, Putali Sadak. There was also a fire in a mattress factory in Satungal, which posed more problems since there were chemicals in the factory that cannot be easily put out by water only. The shortest time needed in controlling these fires was one-and-a-half hours; the other fires took, on an average, about five hours each. All these fires were controlled by the combined fire engines and firemen of the Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur fire brigades, along with those of the Nepal Army, Nepal Police, and the Armed Police Force.
Firemen’s woes
A firefighter’s job is without respite. All of the three fire brigades are low on manpower: there are 37, 11, and 12 employees at the Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur respectively.
“Until 2046 BS, there used to be 53 posts in the KFB. There have been more retirees than recruits after 2046 BS,” says Dhurba Raj Giri, a fireman who has been in the KFB for 24 years.
The majority of the firemen are too old for the job: more than half of the firemen in the three fire brigades are over 40 years.
“Firefighters need to be young, fit, and educated. Firefighting requires quick hands, strength, and stamina. It is a job for young people,” says Khadka, who is nearing 50 years.
There are numerous posts that could be filled with young recruits. Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur have 29, 22, and 20 vacant posts, respectively. But the concerned authorities have no immediate plans for new recruitments. This dearth of manpower means that firefighters cannot work in shifts and have to be on duty almost all the time, including weekends and public holidays.
But for all their extra hours of work they receive no extra money. A firefighter’s monthly salary ranges from Rs. 7,000 to 7,400, depending on whether the firefighter is an employee of the Home Ministry, the metropolitan or sub-metropolitan city office, or the Armed Police Force. The pay scale for firemen in the three fire brigades differs from one another. In addition to the salary, fire-fighters get Rs. 1,790 to Rs. 3,540 for rations every month. They also receive a monthly ‘risk allowance,’ which ranges from Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 2,495.
For a month after the fire control operation at the Triveni Complex in Putali Sadak this June, fireman Sesh Kumar Tiwari coughed out black phlegm. He paid for the medical bills himself. Although the military hospital at Chhauni treated firefighters free of cost before, they have discontinued that facility after the Home Ministry handed over the management of fire brigades to the local government bodies.
“For a firefighter to receive help, we either need to die at the scene of fire or collapse there,” says Tiwari. There is, moreover, no provision for compensating a firefighter’s dependents in the event of his death. Firefighters are not insured. “We have the same facilities as that of people living in rural parts of Nepal,” puts in Januki Prasad Dhakal, a fireman at the JFB Kathmandu.
The risk of injury or even death is high for Nepal’s firefighters. Firemen at the Lalitpur and Bhaktapur Fire Brigades do not have heat-resistant clothes or shoes. “We have nothing to protect us from fire. This is what we wear when we work,” Dhakal said, pointing to the trousers of his army uniform.
Firemen are also called on for rescue operations, especially those involving rescuing people from old wells. In 2051 BS, a firefighter from the LFB lost his life while trying to rescue a man from a well. Since he wasn’t wearing a breathing apparatus, he got deprived of oxygen and succumbed to the poisonous gases in the well. Even today, firefighters are working without breathing apparatuses.
“We don’t have oxygen masks, so we cannot go to the source of a fire. All we can do is hose the fire from afar,” says Umesh Dhakal, a firefighter at the BFB.
The KMCO has included insurance for firemen in its upcoming budget. The estimated budget amounts to Rs. 19 crores, which KMCO plans to spend buying two new fire engines and equipments such as ladders, breathing apparatuses, fire-resistant clothes.
“I have plans to acquire around seven fire engines and establish fire brigades at different locations in the city. We also plan to dig boreholes near Rani Pokhari and Kamal Pokhari to provide water to our fire brigade,” says Ananda Raj Pokharel, executive officer at KMCO. Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City Office has plans to provide its firefighters with fire-resistant clothes. The official looking after the fire brigade, however, was not even aware of the fact that their firefighters have no insurance. According to an official from the Home Ministry, who did not want his identity to be disclosed, the Ministry plans to buy new fire engines and other equipments for the BFB. He also said that the Ministry has plans to provide insurance for the firefighters, but that it will come into effect only after the formulation of relevant laws.
It is said that in Juddha Shumsher’s days, the fire brigade received money to buy a goat for a feast each time they went out on a firefighting operation. But today, wrapped in their ineffective clothing, and using outdated equipments, and without the assurance of insurance, the firefighters of the Kathmandu Valley head to fire sites like sacrificial goats.
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