Bengal fire services have added 226 new fire tenders to their fleet, including three vehicles capable of reaching 36 metres, while the state has announced the recruitment of 1,400 personnel for the fire and emergency services department.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari flagged off the vehicles from Red Road on Wednesday afternoon in the presence of minister of state for fire and emergency services Kaushik Chowdhury, director-general Anuj Sharma and other senior officials. The new recruitment will cover fire operators, fire engine operators, engine operator-cum-drivers and sub-officers, Adhikari said.
The fleet includes 198 mid-sized water tenders, each with a 2.5-kilolitre capacity, along with 25 water tenders capable of carrying 6 kilolitres. The remaining three vehicles are articulating water towers designed to reach a height of 36 metres. Sources cited by The Telegraph India said the vehicles were procured at a total cost of ₹94 crore.
The addition of the 198 mid-sized water tenders takes the department’s fleet of such vehicles to 358. The number of mounted pumps has risen to 212. The articulating water towers are a new addition to the fleet and officials said they could be particularly useful when responding to fires in high-rise buildings.
A fire department official said the vehicles would be deployed at stations across Bengal, with priority expected for densely populated areas, markets, industrial zones and other important urban and semi-urban locations. The deployment will expand the department’s equipment coverage in places where fire incidents can involve large numbers of residents, workers or visitors and where access for emergency vehicles can be difficult.
The announcement follows a recent hotel fire on Free School Street in which nine people died and several others were injured. Referring to the incident, Adhikari said the hotel authorities had kept the exit gate locked because they feared guests would leave without clearing their dues.
The incident has placed attention on both emergency response capacity and the safety practices of buildings used by the public. New vehicles and personnel can strengthen response operations, but their effectiveness will also depend on station-level deployment, access to congested neighbourhoods and compliance with building and fire-safety requirements. The department’s stated deployment plan places the new fleet in the areas identified as having significant population, commercial or industrial exposure.
The next phase will involve assigning the vehicles to fire stations and filling the announced posts across the fire and emergency services department. The department has not specified in the supplied announcement when the recruitment process will be completed or provided a station-wise deployment schedule.
