Posted by: confused_soul September 10, 2011
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http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=35818
| 12 fire engines in capital defunct | |
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ARJUN POUDEL Only three fire engines, all belonging to Kathmandu’s Juddha Barunyantra, currently shoulder the responsibility of dealing with fire emergencies in the three districts. <[Disallowed String for - i frame not allowed] allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="240" hspace="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" vspace="0" width="120" id="aswift_0" name="aswift_0" style="left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; ">
Of the three operational engines, two are 26 years old, while the newest one donated by the government of Japan two years ago is small and cannot deal with major fire outbreaks. The twelve dysfunctional engines cannot be repaired due to unavailability of spare parts. “Companies have stopped producing spare parts of old fire engines. They discontinued the model years ago,” said fire commander of Juddha Barunyantra Basudev Hengaju.  Of the twelve dysfunctional engines, five belong to Kathmandu, four to Lalitpur and three to Bhaktapur. All the fire engines of Lalitpur became dysfunctional some eight months ago and there has been no initiative at all to purchase new ones. “We have to take our engines to Lalitpur if there is a fire outbreak there,” Hengaju said adding, “It takes time for us to reach there. All that the fire fighters of Lalitpur can do is to inform us about an outbreak and use buckets of water themselves to douse fire.” There is at least one fire outbreak every day in these three districts. At times, there are multiple outbreaks at the same time. Of the three fire engines currently in operation, the two that are 26 years old often break down. Sometimes, fire fighters have to the vehicle to start the engine, according to Hengaju. Bhaktapur’s three fire engines have remained dysfunctional for years. Therefore, the three engines of Kathmandu have to answer to outbreak calls from Banepa and Dhulikhel as well. “The KMC does not have the budget to buy fire engines. We have been requesting the authorities to provide us budget for new fire engines but to no avail,” said Dhanapati Sapkota, chief of the Implementation Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City that took over the management of Kathmandu’s fire engines two years ago. “We have also asked the donor agencies and visiting metropolitan officials of foreign countries to provide us new fire-engines.” |
Last edited: 10-Sep-11 02:29 AM