5 years in fire disaster took 21 deaths, Rs. 58 crore in Nagaland

EMN Dimapur, November 24 During the past five years, Nagaland has had more than 700 fire-related emergency calls that saw the death of 21 persons and loss worth more than Rs. 58 crore. A new fire station, the North Fire Station, has been inaugurated for the Secretariat complex in Kohima town. The new facility was inaugurated on November 24 by Toyang Changkong Chang, Parlimentary Secretary for Fire & Emergency Services L Singsit, Inspector General (Fire & Emergency Services) said during the formal program that Rs.89.63 lakh was sanctioned under a program of the North East Council NEC (2013-2014) for construction of Fire Station that included garages, office with barrack accommodation. The work was completed in 2015 under the supervision of Police Engineering Project, he said. The official appreciated the “workmanship carried out” by the contractor. In his speech, parliamentary secretary Toyang Changkong Chang, highlighted a brief history and activities of the emergency services department. The Nagaland Fire and Emergency Services was bifurcated from Nagaland Police in 1990 and formed with a separate directorate with eight Fire Stations “due to its technical profession.” From 2011 onwards the department initiated various visions and activities with the approval of the state government of Nagaland. The Ministry of Home Affairs conducted a detailed survey about the requirement of fire stations in Nagaland. As per the ministry’s report, Nagaland state should have 48 fire stations. “With the increasing development in all spheres of our life, we ought to protect our lives and properties from fire disasters. Among various disasters like earthquake, floods, landslides, fire, etc. fire disaster is the most frequent occurrence,” he said. ‘The role of fire services has been dramatically changed from conventional firefighting of buildings to hazardous materials incident, rescue operations during natural disasters like earthquakes, landslide floods, terrorist attack etc,’ the politician said. He added that fire services have to be transformed into “multi-hazard response force capable of acting in all types of emergencies.” Even in Nagaland the records of fire incidents for the last five years i.e., 2011-2015 is quite alarming, he said. “With the rapid random urbanization of towns in our state especially Kohima and Dimapur, the fire incident occurrence also most frequent in these two cities. Therefore, the department have already submitted a proposal to the government that prevention of fire disaster be a part of Kohima Smart City Plan,” the politician said. The parliamentary secretary has appealed to the public to cooperate with the fire fighters ‘so that with public cooperation we can protect our life and properties from fire disaster.’