Fire safety measures: DC Srinagar holds interaction with market associations, other stakeholders

Srinagar, Apr 30: In wake of recent fire instances in Srinagar city , the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Mohammad Aijaz Asad Saturday held an interaction with Market Associations, Trade bodies, Houseboat Associations & other Stakeholders and officers of Line Departments to discuss the modalities regarding the safety measures to be taken to reduce and avoid the fire incidents.
Additional Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Superintendent of Police(Hqtr), Joint Commissioner, SMC, Joint Director, Fire & Emergency Services, all Tehsildars and other concerned were present in the meeting.
The meeting held a detailed discussion with regard to conducting of the safety audit and taking precautionary measures to avoid occurrences of fire incidents in the City.
At the outset, the Deputy Commissioner stressed on installation of fire extinguishers in every Residential/Commercial structures, Shopping Malls, Religious places including Masjids, Temples, Gurdawaras, Churches across the City to protect the properties and valuables from the fire. He also emphasised on equipping all Government Offices and all essential installations with fire fighting machinery to safeguard official records besides avoiding disruption of essential supplies.
The DC also stressed on launching a mass awareness campaign on the safety and precautionary measures to prevent fire incidents, besides capacity building to tackle any exigency caused due to fire incident. He said lack of knowledge about vigilance and precautionary measures is a major concern and people must know the techniques to control fire at the initial stage.
On the occasion, the Joint Director Fire & Emergency, Bashir Ahmad highlighted the fire safety measures and appealed to all to adopt the fire safety guidelines including switching off electrical gadgets during night, checking home LPG cylinders for expiry date and any leakage before accepting them from the vendor, regularly change the pipe connecting the cylinder to the stove burner. He also stressed on preparing an emergency plan to follow in case of a fire hazard and Keeping an extinguisher at home and learning how to operate it. He also suggested that every household must keep at least one water full container as an immediate fire fighting measure.
He informed that more than 40% fire incidents of Valley occur in Srinagar District and 23 fire stations have been kept in place at different locations of the City.
Deputy Commissioner further said that public training and vigilance are key to control fire incidents. Ward/Mohalla level trained Civil volunteers can play a crucial role in controlling fire hazards.