Mumbai: Fire bikes to tackle bylanes coming soon

Gabriel Zuzarte [far left] with fire brigade officials and a bike modified for fast and quick response during emergencies. Pics/Suresh Karkera

The Mumbai Fire Brigade will soon get 24 custom-made fire bikes for each ward. Vasai's bike transformer, who has in the past modified motorcycles for city police and the Thane Municipal Corporation, has delivered the first one, which has also received relevant permissions.

Gabriel Zuzarte, who owns Road Rage Custom Builds in Vasai, will modify 24 Royal Enfield Standard motorcycles into fire bikes, in collaboration with Siddharth Tibrewal of For Your Rescue (FYR) Pvt Ltd in Kolkata.

A fire brigade official rides the fire bike on Monday

"In 2019, a Mumbai Fire Brigade official called me to work on a fire bike along with Tibrewal. The idea was to develop a bike that would help firefighters navigate the narrow lanes, to reach the affected area as quickly as possible," he said.

Bike gets certification

After over a year and a half, a bike was modified in collaboration with Siddharth, and the Automotive Research Association of India has certified it after rigorous testing and as per the Automotive Industry Standards (AIS)-146.

Talking about the process of modification, Zuzarte told mid-day, "Converting this bike was quite a technical challenge. Achieving centre gravity with the water tank was a big task. We had to make sure that a few additions don't compromise the speed, because quickness is the core of this idea."

Deputy Chief Fire Officer (Technical) Rajesh Choudhary said, "Another important aspect in the fire fighting is on-ground situation; its severity and accessing the location of the fire. Once this is done, necessary resources can be deployed as soon as possible to reduce further damage. The standing committee has approved the proposal of buying these modified fire bikes. We are hopeful to get these bikes in the next three to four months. These will be available at fire stations in all 24 wards."

Fire bikes are used across the world to reduce the response time. Acting as the first response vehicle, these happen to be extremely resourceful in containing and assessing the incident site.

His previous works

Zuzarte had in 2013 worked with Mumbai police to modify more than 240 Royal Enfield Electra bikes. Later, he converted 15 Avenger bikes into ambulances for the Thane Municipal Corporation, and those were launched in January 2019.

Zuzarte said the modified police bikes are in a terrible condition now. "It hurts to see the condition of the bikes, especially after the amount of work we put in to make them swanky and useful for our officers. Whoever rides the bike needs to treat it as their own, and senior officers of the police stations should look after the maintenance," he added.

4months
Approx time in which wards will get one fire bike each

Specifications of the fire bike

. Two stainless steel tank with water capacity of 30 to 35 litres
. Front aerodynamic windshield
. High tension front crash guard
. Two-tone siren and public address system
. Stainless steel 305 grade pipe
. Auxiliary petrol driven motor of 3.5 horse power with LPM of 8 litres and output of 100 bars
. 20 meter of 5mm hose pipe with manual reel
. Two-way water spray jet with twist motion
. 1 kg of fire extinguisher
. One single LED revolving light
. Toolkit and first aid box
. Radium branding