Imlisanen Jamir
Fire engines going past with their sirens blazing have become a regular occurrence these days, with fire incidents particularly in Dimapur becoming habitual phenomena.
In the past couple of months at least 8 reports of fire incidents were reported in Dimapur alone. While no lives were lost, over 30 families were rendered homeless in these reported incidents. From residences to commercial structures, fire incidents flare up almost every week.
Some of these incidents spanning over the just the last couple of months include 4 thatch structures razed below the old flyover adjoining the railway track in Dimapur; a row of shops and several thatch houses gutted at Kuda Village on two separate fire incidents; another ‘Assam type’ house completely razed in Nepali Kashiram; and a major fire at Signal Basti which rendered several families homeless.
The rapid growth of population and construction activity that is being witnessed in an already unorganised rickety urban space like Dimapur only adds to fire hazards looming over the townspeople. Enforcement of fire safety codes in construction is almost non-existent in Nagaland, and apathy towards this by builders is a serious issue that needs addressing.
It is also tragic to see that a lot of the people who are rendered homeless in many of these blazes are people living in shanties. While firefighting personnel with help from the community have worked admirably to prevent these blazes from causing more damage, our approach to this hazard has been more reactive than proactive.
The building industry is a key sector for fire safety activities. But fire can also be associated with other important areas such as transport, industrial safety, wildland fires or urban development.
For the protection of property, at least in places like Nagaland, the challenge is to ensure that basic fire safety codes are properly enforced and built up on through considerate urban policy.
In all of the above areas, the challenge of protecting people is about coping with an ageing society and high concentrations of people in densely populated areas. Human behaviour in this regard becomes increasingly important as well.
The main challenge is perhaps fire safety in itself, irrespective of whether we are talking about people, property, the environment or industry. Fire safety must feature higher on our list of priorities because, all too often, it is put in place to solve problems after the accident.
Comments can be sent to imlisanenjamir@gmail.com
