Mumbai: Questions raised on expensive fire equipment, delayed response time

A major fire broke out at the City Centre mall in South Mumbai on October 22 last year. File pic

Multiple questions were raised at the standing committee meeting on Wednesday regarding the use of costly fire-fighting equipment that have been procured by the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) in recent times. This comes in view of the much-delayed proposal for procuring 24 fire bikes at a cost of Rs 3.15 crore. Corporators across party lines spoke about the delay in response and questioned the effective use of costly machinery. However, the civic administration said the fire bikes would be the first line of defence and reduce response time from 20 minutes to seven to eight minutes.

The proposal for purchasing fire bikes was discussed in the meeting. The BMC is spending Rs 13 lakh for each bike, which will be allotted to every ward.

Fire brigade personnel try to control the fire at Dhanraj Jewellers on Waterfield Road, Bandra in July this year. File pic

Ravi Raja, leader of opposition, said, "We passed the proposal for improving the fire-fighting equipment but even then there are so many fire incidents in high-rises. The MFB procured a 90-metre ladder and a robot to douse fire but we have no idea how effectively they are being used. The BMC has levied a fire tax on residents so it has to fulfill its duty and not shift responsibility on the citizens."

Rais Shaikh, group leader of Samajwadi Party, said, "The fire that broke out at the City Centre mall in South Mumbai in October last year has exposed many loopholes in the fire-fighting system. The residents literally pushed the robot inside the building while it was supposed to operate automatically."

Vishakha Raut, leader of the House and Shiv Sena corporator, told the committee that firefighters were doing a good job but after so much investment for equipment, they expect the fire brigade to be of international standards.

Ashwini Bhide, additional commissioner of the BMC, explained that the MFB was one of the best departments and had a world-class command centre at Byculla.
She further said, "We have added 35 mini-fire stations in the past couple of years, and are developing 18 more mini-stations to improve the response time. In the city the response time is 20 minutes and in the suburbs it is 33 minutes. The time increases due to narrow lanes and traffic jams. As per the norms, the response time should be 6.5 minutes. The fire bikes will bring down the first response time to seven to eight minutes."