SAMBALPUR: On the wee hours of November 6, locals noticed smoke coming out of a three-storey building housing godown of a footwear shop. Although the building is located within one km of the fire station, it took the fire tendering vehicles one-and-half an hour to reach the godown at Kumbharpada under Town police limits. By the time the blaze was doused, footwear worth Rs 10 lakhs was destroyed.
However, fire brigade personnel are not to blame. Encroachment and indifference of the administration to the problem have squeezed many roads and there is little the fire brigade personnel can do about it. This has led to a volatile situation and there are many areas where casualties could be high if a fire breaks out. The situation is worse in 103 slums that have cropped up in the city.
According to the revenue map, the road leading from Baraipali Chowk to PWD road near Rail Nagar is 33 feet wide and has shrunk to 23 feet at some places. Physically, the road is just 12 to 14 feet wide. At least two triple-storey buildings have come up right on the road where the road has further squeezed to about 10 feet. At least three slums have cropped up on the embankment of Rani Bandh, a traditional water body. Recently, encroachment has begun on the PWD road from Panchgachia towards Rail Nagart.
The situation is no different in many pockets of Badbazar, Mudipada, Khetrajpur and Old Sambalpur areas.
District Fire Officer, Rangadhar Acharya admitted to narrow roads creating problems. He, however, said there were small fire tender vehicles, which are being deployed in such areas. But he admitted that no vulnerability assessment of fire threat has been made.