The men and women who yearn for what they fear, find their playground in the inferno. Not so glamorized as their western counterparts, the Indian firefighters plunge into rooms with walls ablaze and crumbling down, the noxious smoke and the terrified faces, with or without the perfect tools for the job. Spare a moment to delve a little more into the lives those who flirt with fire for their bread and butter.
1. What’s going on at Deonar
It has been days since the fire at Deonar was started on March 19 and it is still flaming. Now, the toxic smoke of the fire at the dumping grounds at Deonar is making the firefighters ill with two of them already being hospitalized. It may just be a part and parcel of the job but the firefighters have been having their mid-day meals surrounded by the murderous venom in the gases.
With the back-breaking work hours, the situation cannot even allow them the mandatory rest period after every big fire and the limited number of face-masks is making the situation even worse for the firefighters of Mumbai.
2. The sad but true story of the Indian firemen
The firemen of Mumbai are believed to be the employees of one of the richest civic bodies of the nation. However, quite interestingly, they are not entitled to any insurance scheme for paying hospital bills for in case they’re injured at work. If you think it is shocking that firefighters are not entitled to insurance or medical claim, you should know that until 2014, there was no procedure for the fire brigade authorities to admit an injured firefighter to a private hospital even if the public hospitals are far away.
Vishwajit Nikam, Additional Divisional Fire Officer, was seriously injured at work in 1992 when his ambulance driver drove him to a nearby private hospital as there were no public hospitals around. The fire brigade filed a charge-sheet against the driver for saving Nikam’s life and Nikam, on the other hand, shed Rs 1 lakh on his own for his treatment.
3. The joke in the name of risk allowance
Some may argue that the authorities are not entirely careless about the fighters’ conditions as they do grant an emergency allowance to the men out there. However, the amount paid as risk allowance was a mere pittance of Rs 50 per month until 2013 when after a protest from the employees, the allowance was revised to Rs 500 a month which still not enough considering what these men and women put themselves through.
4. The firemen are fooled that their uniforms are fireproof
When 3 firemen lost their lives in 2015 at the Kalbadevi building fire, the employees took a stand and demanded better gear and equipment through a letter addressed to Ajoy Mehta, the BMC chief.
Ramakant Bane, the union secretary laid it out at a press conference at the wake of the unfortunate incident of the Kalbadevi building fire that Personal Protective Appliance provided that the firefighters are provided with are of the poorest quality and they’re far from fireproof as the officers claim them to be.
5. The legacy of Sudhir Amin
The protests that were ignited after the loss of lives at the Kalbadevi building owes much of its impetus to the loss of one of the finest firefighters of the department, Sudhir Amin. He put his name in the Hall of Fame of firefighters as he led from the front during the ghastly attacks of the 26/11.
It was in those infernal blazes that one of his colleagues was seriously injured and due to lack of money was turned away by the private hospital. Amin paid Rs 1 lakh of his own money to get him admitted shaming the BMC. So, when the legend himself succumbed to the fire at Kalbadevi years later, BMC was questioned again by agitated employees which forced the authorities to make emergency funds available in 2015.
6. Women as firefighters
It was only recently in 2012 that Mumbai finally realized that women can be suited for the high-risk job just as any man could. As several reports indicated that women victims often felt uncomfortable while dealing with male firefighters the Mumbai fire brigade appointed Kavita Gurukul, Kanchan Rathod, Varsha Budhvant, Lata Rathod and Nirmala Ingle. It was the first time in 123 years of the organization’s existence that women were recruited for the job.
Also, the story of Nirma Chaudhary, who went on to become a firefighter after being married off before turning 18 like many others in Rajasthan inspired many a woman to take up the profession.
7. The story of a fire vigilante
Bipin Ganatra has been chasing fire all his life but he’s not a professional fireman, per se. He keeps a lookout for any news of a fire breaking out in Calcutta, and if there is any, Bipin rings up the fire brigade and turns up at the site. Bipin, who’d get frantic at the sound of the bell of the pacing fire brigade vehicle, is one of the most respected, helping hands to the fire extinguishers of the city.
With no formal training on putting out a fire, Bipin has many stories to tell about his feats of courage amidst the fatal flames and the certificates and awards on the shelves of his one-room apartment speak for them.
