“On top of that, one of the two fire engines keeps breaking down, and our firefighters work at God´s mercy, with no fireproof suits to protect them,” says Dhanapati Sapkota, chief of JFB Operations Department under Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) that was handed over responsibility for JFB operations this fiscal year by the Home Ministry.
Also, the two fire engines used by JFB at Basantapur are too bulky and therefore useless if fire breaks out in areas such as Ason and Thamel where the streets are too narrow and the houses stand choc-o-bloc.
JFC is the only fire brigade meant for public service in Kathmandu, though it is occasionally assisted during major fire outbreaks by the police and army, each of which has a fire engine of its own. The institution best equipped to deal with fires is Tribhuvan International Airport with its seven fire engines, but these are almost always engaged in airport emergencies. The JFBs in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur have one and two fire engines respectively, and are heavily depend on Kathmandu´s fire engines to deal with fires.
“We are seriously under-equipped,” says Basudev Hengaju, 42, who is today the country´s most experienced firefighter after 26 years in the service.
Basantapur´s fire brigade where Hengaju works responded to over 300 genuine calls annually for the past couple of years, though the firefighters also respond to dozens of hoax calls every year.
“Fortunately, the number of fire outbreaks has not shot up in proportion to the increased population in Kathmandu,” Hengaju says. “This is principally because people have grown aware and cautious,” he explains.
But Hengaju and his 38 colleagues at JFB Kathmandu await Laxmi Puja nervously, as he doesn´t have any fond memories of that annual festival.
“Ever since I joined the service, there hasn´t been a single Laxmi Puja when we could enjoy the festival. On that day, we are able to deal with less than half the calls received on our hotline number 101,” he adds.
Every year, Laxmi Puja witnesses the largest number of fire outbreaks, thanks to lamps lit by people in their houses, and fire-crackers, principally rockets, that occasionally enter people´s locked rooms through the window or land on haystacks, setting off fires.
Kathmandu´s fire-fighting capabilities are also severely limited by the fact that fire engines have to reach Mahankal for water refills. That makes it difficult when there is a major outbreak and the fire engines need several refills.
Despite risking their lives without any insurance cover, firefighters like Hengaju have to make do with their limitations and carry on with an impossible job.
“As we don´t have fireproof clothing, we sometimes watch helplessly as people burn to death right in front of our eyes,” he says.
The firefighters also don´t have filter masks, let alone oxygen masks, and most of them end up suffering from asthma after inhaling carbon over the years.
“It is a thankless job. We do our best, but deep down we know that more could have been done if we had more fire engines and firefighters,” he says.
According to KMC´s Sapkota, the government had promised a budget for the purchase of one big and one small fire engine after handing over JFB Basantapur to KMC.
“But later, we were told that all the government can provide is an operational budget,” he says. A fire engine costs around Rs 40 million.
As an immediate measure, Hengaju suggests the purchase of fire-motorcycles equipped with fire extinguishing gas and stationed in each ward to control damage until the fire engines arrive. “But in the long run, we need to divide Kathmandu into sectors and set up a well-equipped fire brigade in each sector,” he says. This has become essential given the city´s constipated traffic movement that has made prompt response impossible.
JFB was established in 1937 by Rana Prime Minister Juddha Shumsher, three years after the devastating earthquake of 1934 and ensuing fire outbreaks brought the then Drinking Water Adda´s fire dousing capabilities into question. Until then, the Adda doused fires by ferrying bucketfuls of water to areas where fires were reported. And 72 years later, buckets filled with water still remain the best hope for many households in Kathmandu when it comes to dealing with fires.
bikash@myrepublica.com
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