VISAKHAPATNAM: On the fateful day of the Vizag gas leak, the Fire Department took 21 minutes to respond to the emergency call, instead of five minutes, as stipulated by the Standing Fire Advisory Council (SFAC). Besides, the available strength of the AP State Disaster Response and Fire Service Department in Visakhapatnam is highly inadequate. These were some of the findings of the High-Power Committee (HPC) that probed the gas leak that left 15 people dead and hundreds hospitalised.
The HPC said the Fire Department received its first call about the mishap at 3.30 am on May 7, and the fire tender from Marripalem reached the LG Polymers plant — four km away — at 3.51 am, as per a report from the Fire Department. SFAC norms stipulate a response time of five minutes in urban areas and 20 minutes in rural areas, with a 10 km area to be covered in urban areas and 50 sq km in rural areas.
The HPC advised the state government to take steps to equip the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) for all types of calamities and accidents by providing the necessary infrastructure. It recommended that the SDRF become an integral part of on-site and off-site mock drills and implementation of emergency plans of all hazardous industries. It should be a member of the state, district and local crisis group, the panel said.
Through mock drills, the SDRF should ensure that personnel working in the industry are aware of preventive measures to avoid disasters, as well as the standard operating procedure in case of a disaster. The company’s technical personnel, the fire department, SDRF, and local police officials, along with local volunteers, should be the first line of response in an emergency and should play an active role in the local crisis group, it said.
The HPC added that officers and personnel of the State Disaster Response and Fire Service Department should regularly be trained at institutions - such as like National Fire Service College (NFSC), Nagpur, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) New Delhi, and Disaster Management Institute (DMI), Bhopal - that provide advanced training in combating chemical, nuclear and biological disasters.
Departmnent must be like NDRF: HPC
The HPC said the Fire Department should not just focus on fire accidents, but start functioning as a state disaster response force, not just for natural calamities but also for industrial and chemical accidents, gas leaks, explosions etc. along the lines of the National Disaster Response Force