PANJIM: Outlining the measures it has implemented and what it proposes to do, Ashok Menon, Director, Goa Fire & Emergency Services (F&Es), highlighted the department responded to F&E incidents between January 2020 and March 2021, on the occasion of National Fire Services Day.
“The department saved 107 human lives, 597 animal lives and citizen property worth Rs 20.27 crore,” said Menon, while crediting this to the financial investments made by the State government to augment its ability to respond to such incidents.
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Menon said the day is aimed at paying homage to firemen martyrs. The theme is ‘maintenance of fire safety equipment key to mitigate fire hazards’.
On that note, he summarised how there gaps in the department’s infrastructure in terms of manpower, equipment and fire stations, which he pointed out the government was addressing by listing out how the govt had supported them.
Regarding vertical growth of infrastructure in cities and urban areas, he said the dept has aerial ladder platforms and turntable ladders of 32 metres height, but requires 56 metres high turntable ladders for rescue firefighting in high rise buildings up to 50 metres.
He also focused on their big push towards enhancing the department’s e-infrastructure.
From implementing e-governance to revamping its website, Menon said citizens can now monitor the dept’s progress to live F&E incidents online.
“The department has developed an automated live call advisory and statistical dashboard as part of populating a set of reports of the F&E calls attended along with summary, trends and thermal mapping. The data is collated on a day-to-day basis. This data will assist in identifying hazard prone areas, archiving data for research of various stakeholders, research analysis, department-wise preparedness and identification of resources,” said Menon.
He added that the aforementioned system is integrated with the National Informatics Centre services for sending automated SMSs and emails as alerts to various stakeholders of the disaster management cell.
Speaking about what it plans to do with regards to being more in sync with technology, he said the government has forwarded the department’s proposal of setting up a ‘Save Goa 24/7 Emergency Monitoring System’ (EMS) under the Smart City project.
“This EMS will monitor in real time, the functional status of fire protection systems installed in all stakeholders, facilities and occupancies such as industry, hospital, hotels, banks, high-rise buildings etc. This will minimise loss of life and physical assets,” he added.
The Director added that the department has initiated virtual simulation training for fire and safety awareness and that fire and safety disaster apps have also been developed.
Menon also spoke about steps the department wants to take to streamline the work of the dept, making it more citizen-friendly and for facilitating ease of business.
“The three-decade old ‘Daman and Diu Fire Force Act 1986’ and Goa State Fire Force Rules, 1997 have been proposed to be replaced with new legislation,” he added.
He also revealed that as part of its disaster response awareness plan, the government has approved the department’s proposal of drawing village disaster management plans for implementation, presently in panchayats of both districts on pilot basis, which would be expanded across the State later on.
He spoke about how the department has fire and disaster response training for various sections of society and institutions in order to sensitise the community about safety practises and precautions.
In that regard, he said, “the Department has so far trained 751 primary school teachers, 4,264 secondary school teachers, 33,027 students and 17,600 citizens covering 106 village panchayats.”
Finally, he added that the government is upgrading on priority, the capacity building and equipment of the State disaster response force.
