Delhi Fire Service trains women in basic firefighting techniques

by Featured NewsTraining

Delhi Fire Service has launched an initiative that trains women in JJ clusters to assist its firefighters in controlling emergency situations.

The Fire Department, BSES and Mehar Charitable Trust, an NGO, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an idea to create awareness and train people to control fire incidents using the available resources at home.

Upon completing the training, the participating women were given a ‘Main bhi firefighter hoon’ (I too am a firefighter) certificate. The DFS has so far trained two batches of 200 women each from two JJ colonies.

Delhi Fire Service (DFS) Chief Atul Garg, said a detailed record of every woman trained in basic firefighting techniques will be maintained by the DFS so that they can be called for help during emergencies.

He added: “The purpose is to make the women feel confident and help fire tenders reach the spot by guiding them about alternate routes in case of emergencies. The trained women can also help by clearing the roads for DFS vehicles and also apprise the firefighters of the nearest sources of water.”

Nargis Begam, who undertook the training programme, said she enrolled myself in a training programme by Delhi Fire Service to assist firefighters when fires break out. “I can now teach others how to tackle such situations,” she said.

The NGO, in coordination with the DFS, plans to reach out to women through Residential Welfare Associations in all the JJ clusters across the city.

Delhi Fire Service clears building fire safety proposals

by ConstructionFeatured NewsIndustry SectorsSafety

The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) has cleared seven proposals for fire safety systems in buildings being constructed under the Government’s Central Vista Project. The proposals were cleared by the DFS after the building designs were presented for approval by the government as senior official said.

Each of the seven proposals consist of plans for more than two building. These buildings include New Parliament Building, New PMO building, Amenity block, and Common Central secretariat being made under the Central Vista project, and a few other office buildings.

various in-built fire-fighting arrangements are recommended to be installed in the buildings such as a fire exit, a hose reel, a wet riser, hydrants, an automatic sprinkler system, internal hydrants and yard hydrants, pumping arrangements, and captive water storage for fire-fighting, the fire officers said.

Automatic fire detection and alarming system, manual-operated electric fire alarm system and a public address system are also recommended in the National Building Code of India Chapter 4 on fire and fire safety.

“All the recommendations suggested are being followed and implemented in the building designs which had altered,” the officer said. Atul Garg, Director of DFS said.

“The buildings under the Central Vista project have state-of-the-art technology as far as the fire department is considered. We have tried to provide the best infrastructure for the fire safety system. This is going to have in-built fire safety systems with a set up of a huge fire control room as well.”

The fire officials said that initially it was not easy to convince the architects of the project to make certain specific changes in terms of fire safety system as they were of the view that any such changes could affect the beauty of the buildings.