Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Response and Fire Services well-equipped to tackle forest fires
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Response and Fire Services (SDRF) is well equipped with necessary machinery to prevent forest fires in the State, said Director General of SDRF K Satyanarayana. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Satyanarayana said that since 2014, two major forest fires broke out one at Simhachalam and the other at Seshachalam forests in Chittoor district. Around 50 minor forest fires were also reported in Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Tirupati, Kurnool and Kadapa districts, he informed.
He called upon the people living nearby the forest to inform the fire services department immediately and try to control the fire by pouring water and cutting the trees and shrubs to prevent the spread of fire. Giving details of fire accidents, he said 15,671 fire accidents took place in the State in 2016-17. Property damage was estimated at `2.12 crore and the fire department staff saved the property worth Rs 7.09 crore. The property loss in the year 2017-18 year (Up to February 2018) is `1.97 crore and the SDRF saved property worth `6.65 crore from destruction.
He said three major accidents, 105 serious accidents, 598 medium accidents and 11,683 small accidents took place in the year 2017-18 (up to February 2018). If the property loss in the mishap is less than `15 lakh, it is treated as a medium accident and if the property loss is less than Rs 5 lakh, it is treated as a small accident. If the property loss is more than `25 lakh it is considered as a major accident. If is there is a casualty, it is considered as serious accident.
The DG said that 445 people lost their lives in the fire accidents in 2016-17 and the SDRF teams saved the lives of 1,084 persons in the mishaps. He said 512 people lost their lives in fire accidents in 2017-18 and the SDRF staff saved the lives of 754 people in 2017-18 (UP to February 2018). He appealed to the people to inform the district fire services control rooms immediately if they notice the fire accident.
The department is adding 18 more fire tenders to the existing fleet of 192 to strengthen the services in the State. Referring to the vacancies in the department, Satyanarayana said that department has sanctioned strength of 3,990. At present, 2,805 are exercising their duties and as many as 1,185 vacancies are to be filled, which includes drivers, station fire officers, home guards and district fire officers (DFO).
‘’A letter has been written to the State government seeking to conduct recruitment drive in the department,’’ Satyanarayana said.