‘Fire brigade ill-equipped to tackle mishaps’

Fire brigade officials who tended to the Dombivali factory blast have said they do not have the proper equipment to respond effectively if a similar disaster happens again. Sources said that while the fire brigade vehicle was on its way to reach the spot in Dombivali — where a chemical blast had occurred in an industrial unit— it stopped twice due to technical snag.

The fire brigade and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials completed their work Saturday night after pulling out the body of a 29-year-old man.

Fire brigade officials will be present on the spot for a few more days to inspect the area. “There is a possibility that the fire in the chemical could have caused the formation of some harmful gas, which may be lying beneath the debris. People may suffer if the gas gets released in the air and hence, as a precautionary measure we are staying in the area to tackle any emergency situation,” said an official.

“Not having enough equipment is nothing new. However, we expect there will be some improvement henceforth. If a blast of such massive scale occurs again, we would not have the equipment to tackle such a situation,” he added.

He said the six fire-fighters were rushing to blast site in a fire brigade vehicle when it had to be stopped twice because of some technical problem.

“The vehicle that has been given to us by the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation ( KDMC) is 20 year old and there is no one to maintain the equipment or the vehicle. We have 15 vehicles, of which two are really old, while others were brought quite a few years ago. There is zero maintenance of the vehicles. While the vehicle is in motion, we have to hold its exit door tightly or else we may fall off. This is not the first time the vehicle has conked out in the middle of the road,” said the official.

The official also spoke about the staff crunch in the department. “Sometimes, we attend to a fire call with only three or four officials in our team. Such a small team is not sufficient to even open the ladder. Also, the office that we have been given at D and H ward is very small. There is not enough room for our team,” he said.

However, senior KDMC official Suresh Shinde denied that the department was ill-equipped. “As per my knowledge, I don’t think any of our vehicles have experienced a technical snag before. I don’t know about such a incident,” said Mr Shinde.

About the technical snag on Thursday he said vehicles were after all machinery and anything could happen anytime.