BHUBANESWAR: A few hours after a massive blaze ravaged a Durga Puja pandal in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi claiming five lives, Odisha Fire Service said its four mobile vehicles are doing the rounds of important areas in the State Capital between 3 pm and 12 am to ensure the festival passes off smoothly.
Each vehicle consists of four personnel and equipped with water, fire extinguishers and wet blankets. While one vehicle is making rounds of Cuttack Road including Laxmisagar, the other is keeping a watch on areas like Unit-I, AG Square, near OUAT and Raj Bhavan, among others.
Similarly, one fire vehicle is deployed for Saheed Nagar, Kharvela Nagar and other nearby areas, and another vehicle is monitoring Nayapalli, CRPF Square, Nalco Square, Jaydev Vihar, and others. Odisha Fire Service has asked the Durga Puja pandals to install adequate fire extinguishers and keep buckets with dry sand and 100 to 200 litre water on their premises to handle any emergency during the festival.
“All the puja pandals have been directed to ensure that there are no loose connections in the electrical wiring to avoid incidents of short-circuit,” said a fire officer. Apart from the mobile vehicles, the fire tenders at Kalpana, Secretariat, Chandrasekharpur and AIIMS fire stations are on stand-by to handle if there is any emergency at the Puja pandals in the city.
“We have installed at least 25 fire extinguishers and there are two exit gates at the pandal. In case of an emergency, an exit gate behind the idol of the goddess has also been set up,” said Rasulgarh Durga Puja Committee’s member, Prashant Kumar.
Similarly, Old Station Bazaar Durga Puja Samiti president Ganesh Prasad Sahoo said they too have an emergency exit gate behind the idol. Nayapalli Durga Puja Samiti president Pabitra Mohan Behera said they installed about 15 fire extinguishers and have kept dry sand to handle any untoward fire incident.