20230803 State fire services to prepare 5-year plan to tackle disasters
India Aug 03 2023 “Building”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
State fire services to prepare 5-year plan to tackle disasters
Updated: 2023-08-03
BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha fire and emergency services (OFES) directorate has decided to prepare a five-year comprehensive plan to effectively deal with disasters. The directorate would engage an expert agency to prepare the proposed Odisha fire & emergency vision 2028, official sources said.
“Disaster management has always topped the priority of the state government. The personnel of fire stations or multi hazard response centres are the first responders to natural and other disasters. Thus, we want to prepare Odisha fire & emergency vision-2028 to equip our personnel with latest equipment and skills to deal with different types of disasters in future,” OFES director Sudhansu Sarangi told TOI.
As per the vision, the OFES would identify the types of disasters striking Odisha and current capacity of the fire service personnel to deal with the hazards. The vision would also focus on types of disaster Odisha may face in the next five years and the preparedness required to mitigate the crisis. New equipment, training and capacity building of rescuers and introduction of IT for seamless disaster management would also be part of the vision, sources said.
The state government has been funding adequately to strengthen the fire stations and enhance the disaster management skills of the personnel. Odisha currently has 345 fire stations spread across all blocks.
On April 18, chief minister Naveen Patnaik approved a proposal for establishment of three new fire stations in Bhubaneswar. The proposed fire stations will come up at Mancheswar, Tamando and Pahal. Currently, Bhubaneswar has six fire stations. While one fire station each is functional at Kalpana, Chandrasekharpur and secretariat campus (all inside the city), the other three fire stations are located in Balianta, Balipatna and Jatani (city outskirts).
Firefighting measures at SCB, MKCG and VSS medical colleges and hospitals in Cuttack, Berhampur, and Sambalpur got a fillip with chief minister Naveen Patnaik on July 6 sanctioning 45 new posts in the fire services directorate specifically for the three healthcare facilities.
Web Source: The Times of India