Rajahmundry: Fire officials to raise awareness

Rajahmundry: As the summer approaches, burning cigar butts and hearths in tribal areas could cause haystacks, piles of dry garbage or industrial units to be susceptible to catch fire. This is a major a cause of concern to authorities from the fire services in Godavari districts as elsewhere.

Careless smoking especially from among the tribals throw burning cigar butts and beedis recklessly anywhere and everywhere. Some of them fail to completely extinguish the fire in their hearths at home after cooking food. Such carelessness has regularly been a cause of small or major fire mishaps in agency areas especially during the summer.

In 2018 alone, as many as 76 cases of fire mishaps were reported from Rampachodavaram and Kunavaram agency areas in East Godavari. Most of the tribals live in thatched houses located in small habitations in highly inaccessible areas. There often is no proper road or communication network. With any fire mishap reported from there, fire service authorities to rush there with fire tenders and fire service personnel to put out the fire. No loss of life is usually reported as a result of these fire mishaps with the exception of a few stray cases in Agency areas. Fire service authorities find it more apt to pay attention to ensure that no fire mishap takes place rather than how to fight the incidents.

For this reason, fire service authorities involve their staff to take up awareness drives especially among the tribals asking them to change their habit of throwing away burning cigar butts and bidis or failing to stop burning hearth after cooking food, so that the number of fire mishaps can be reduced to ensure safety to them.

Haystacks lined up in fields after harvest of crops by farmers is also a major cause of concern if and when farmers or villagers throw burning butts of cigars, cigarettes or bidis carelessly resulting in haystacks catching fire. Some farmers and farm labourers live in houses near the fields with their family members and face trouble in case a haystack catches fire and spreads to their huts.

The raging fire from one haystack to the other spreads depending on the direction and speed of wind. It could happen so fast that fire personnel could not get enough time to reach the spot and put out the fire before it causes major damage.

So is the case with dry garbage in urban centres where it catches fire easily and spreads to other areas causing loss to property and at times to even local residents. Fire service authorities are working out plans to raise awareness especially at vulnerable areas to inform people about the dos and don'ts with the fire to ensure safety óf their property as well as their life and also to alert the nearest fire station.

The fire authorities also face trouble from some industrial units like the ones dealing with coconut coir especially in Konaseema area in East Godavari and also from other units located in parts of both the districts, which fail to comply with fire safety norms promptly.

East Godavari district fire officer Ch. Ratna Babu said, "As part of preventive measures for fire accidents in the summer, we are taking up awareness programme advising people to give up some bad habits and to be always alert. Moreover, we are strengthening our fire-fighting equipment and keeping all vehicles ready to attend to fire call as early as possible to save the lives and reduce the extent of damage to their property."