KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 26
The government has developed a procedure that will enable local levels to receive fire engine from the federal government, provincial government, donor agencies, or other organisations/persons.
As per the 'Fire Engine (Management and Operation) Procedure' prepared and published by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administrations, the new provisions will assist local governments to provide sustainable, dependable and reliable service to citizens when it comes to firefighting in their concerned areas.
"The rural municipalities and municipalities may acquire fire engine from the federal government, provincial government, donor agencies or other organisations/persons to keep it on standby round-the-clock.
The procedure requires the local levels to make arrangements for sending the fire engine to the incident site within two minutes of receiving information about a fire. The responsibility of operating the fire engine will lie on the Disaster Management Section of the local level.
As per the new provisions, there will be a five-member steering committee led by the chief of the rural municipality/municipality for the operation of fire engine in a systematic, reliable and effective manner.
Two or more local levels may operate a fire engine in partnership as required.
Likewise, the village/municipal executive has to make a provision of necessary budget for regular maintenance of the fire engine, besides getting it insured.
According to the procedure, a local level shall have at least seven human resources for the management and operation of the fire engine. They include a leader, two drivers and four firemen. There is also a provision for accident insurance of up to one million rupees for staffers involved in firefighting, in addition to safety gears for them.
A government figure indicates that only around 200 local levels have fire engines in operational state.
Despite the provision requiring each municipality to have at least one fire engine in the existing law, most of the local levels seem to depend on bare hands to fight fire incidents.
It is mandatory for a municipality to have a fire engine, excavator, roller, dozer and garbage truck.
Fire hazards are responsible for major damage to life and property each year.
During the 11 months of 2021, fire claimed as many as 97 lives across the country, said the National Emergency Operation Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The major causes of fire include poor handling of candles and burning cigarette butts, short circuit, cooking gas leakage and gas cylinder or stove explosion, among others.
Urban fire incidents are on the rise because of unplanned settlement and irrational use of plastic materials, warned the MoHA.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 27, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
