Editorial:Disaster Preparedness, Still Awaited

Fires remain a constant concern during winter months. Unfortunately, like most other concerns, it continues to remain largely unaddressed. Over the past few years, the State has had to grapple with a rash of forest fires and some huge blazes in towns and villages. The recent history of fires might have been more dramatic, but fact remains that such fires have always been around. Many of the State’s monasteries and other important buildings have gone down to fires since the remote past to current times. The monsoon was healthy last year and there has been reasonably enough precipitation this winter to scale down the chances of forest fires. The mercury, however, has been slipping low, and as temperatures fall, the need for artificial heating in the phenomenally climate-insensitive Sikkim homes increases. With this, comes the danger of short circuits or stray embers causing fires. A life was lost to one such fire at Daragaon, Tadong, in the capital on Monday evening. Although casualties to fire have been rare in Sikkim, the latest incident underlines the reality that when it comes to flames, life and property are always at risk. Unfortunately, despite a history of devastating fires, this remains a hazard which remains largely unaddressed. If the loss of lives and property has been low of late, it is only because the State now enjoys the services of a much improved fire-fighting team. Their quick response, aided by better equipment now at their disposal, has ensured that Sikkim and its people have not paid as dearly for their recklessness as the situations had potential for.
That said, fire-fighters arrive at a scene only after human error [in most cases] has sparked one and almost immediately, are confronted with a host of obstacles, when, in an ideal situation, they should receive infrastructural and human assistance to expedite fire-fighting. Take the Monday evening incident for example – the cottage where the fire broke out was hemmed in by buildings on all sides with only an extremely narrow path over boundary walls allowing access. The house was not being lived in save an elderly person maintained there as a caretaker. He perished in the fire, perhaps already rendered unconscious by the noxious smoke before the blaze manifested itself. In all probability, the fire-fighters did not even know of the casualty until they entered the house after having doused the flames. The two requirements to ensure effective fire-fighting - access and information – were not available to the fire-fighters. This scenario holds true for most places across the capital and the State, and every fire is combated with fingers crossed in the hope that the resolve and bravery of fire-fighters will carry the day. That cannot always happen. It thus becomes important for better groundwork to be laid by residents of every area to ensure that when the professionals arrive, they know exactly what they are up against. The much touted civil defence teams, stitched together after the disastrous 1997 landslides in Gangtok, it appears, have run out of steam. But most townships of Sikkim now have urban local bodies to look out for their affairs. They should probably start doing more than issuing trade licences or joining cleanliness drives, and start addressing real urban woes – safety being an important concern. It will not take much imagination to achieve this. Disaster preparedness plans can be formalised for every ward. This, should include disaster scenarios ranging from earthquakes to landslides to fires to stampedes to even burst sewage pipes. Places/ houses more at risk and dangerously inaccessible should be marked and possible access and escape routes charted. There is not the space here to get into more details of what can be included in such a document, but information like the layout of power cables and detail demographics would prove helpful. And then, point persons could be appointed for each sector so that when the search and rescue teams arrive, they know whom to contact to get briefed on the situation. These are obvious things to do, but remain unfortunately unattended...