Patna’s Diwali fire safety arrangements will involve 450 Bihar Fire Services personnel and fire tenders stationed at 48 sensitive locations across the city, with a nine-zone response system designed to reach incidents within two to five minutes of an alert.
The deployment will begin on Friday afternoon, with each of Patna’s nine fire stations assigned responsibility for a separate zone. Fire personnel will remain on alert in their designated areas, while holidays for all fire department employees have been cancelled for the festival period.
District Fire Officer Abhishek Kumar said the identified locations include Dak Bungalow crossing, Income Tax Golambar, Patliputra Golambar, Digha Haat, Dinkar Golambar, Gaighat, Kachchi Dargah, Danapur, Patna City and Ashok Rajpath. A fire tender and a team of personnel will be stationed at each point so that the nearest available unit can be sent immediately after an emergency call is received.
The department has classified slum settlements and Patna City as particularly vulnerable because of dense populations, narrow lanes and closely packed houses. Scrap shops, cotton warehouses and timber shops have also been marked as high-risk sites because they store large quantities of inflammable material. Fire crews have been instructed to maintain additional vigilance around these establishments during the festival period.
Firecracker-related incidents remain one of the department’s main concerns during Diwali. To coordinate emergency responses, the main control room at Lodipur and the control rooms at all nine fire stations will remain operational. Alerts will be passed immediately to the team responsible for the relevant zone, while reserve teams will be mobilised when an incident is large or requires additional resources.
Senior fire officials will conduct regular inspections across the city to check deployment arrangements and address gaps, according to the department. Google Maps-based tracking will also be used to monitor the location and movement of fire tenders, allowing officials to identify the nearest available vehicle during an emergency.
The response plan places particular emphasis on the first few minutes after a fire is reported. The department said rapid intervention during that period is crucial to limiting the spread of flames and reducing the potential loss of life and property. The zonal deployment and control-room arrangements will remain in force for the festival period.
