AP State Disaster Response and Fire Services to procure 18 new fire tenders

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Response and Fire Services (SDRF) department will add 18 more fire tenders to its existing fleet of 192 to strengthen the services in the state. The SDRF has 173 fire stations across 13 districts with more than 2,000 staff.

The department has already purchased 18 fire tenders and will be pressed into service soon.  Addressing media conference at the State SDRF services office here on Thursday, SDRF Director General K Satyanarayana said the department had launched vigorous campaign across 13 districts in the state creating awareness on the safety and preventive measures to be taken during the mishaps.

Stating that the department has geared up to combat accidents this summer, he said pamphlets and stickers were distributed at grassroot-level in the villages providing phone numbers of nearest fire stations. The department owns 192 fire tenders, which include 173 in perfect condition in serving in 173 stations across the state, the DG said the remaining fire tenders will be repaired soon.

Giving details of fire accidents, he said 15,671 fire accidents took place in the state in 2016-17 and property damage was put at R 2.12 crore and the fire crew had saved property worth Rs 7.09 crore.

The property loss in 2017-18 upto February is put at Rs 1.97 crore and the SDRF staff saved property worth Rs 6.65 crore from destruction, he added. He said three major accidents--105 serious accidents, 598 medium accidents and 11,683 small accidents-took place in 2017-18 upto February.

If the property loss in the mishap is less than Rs 15 lakh, it is treated as medium accident and the property loss is less than Rs 5 lakh it is treated as small accident, he said and added if the property loss is more than Rs 25 lakh it is considered as a major accident.

If is there is a casualty it is considered as serious accident. The DG said 445 people lost their lives in fire accidents in 2016-17 and the SDRF teams saved the lives of 1,084 persons in the mishaps.