Pattan town in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district remain exposed to the fire threat as as there is only a single fire tender with 7 employees including a woman and a driver posted at Fire and Emergency Station Pattan.
In case of an emergency, these scores of adjacent villages including Goshbugh to Diver Parihaspora, Ussan,Palhallan, Gund Khawaja Qasim, Zangam,Sherpora, Nihalpora,Cheksari and wailo etc have to seek assistance from Sopore Fire Station which is approximately 20 km away. According to locals Fire and Emergency Services Department has miserably failed to provide another fire tender to Pattan though people have been continuously requesting the successive regimes for the same from past four decades.
"To douse fire in our jurisdiction, we have to bank upon the neighbouring Sopore Fire Station in the past 40 years, there have been many major fire incidents here, while, equipped fire fighting apparatus is need of the hour,” said a fire fighter wishing not to be named. Locals informed news agency CNS that a Fire Tender and seven employees were provided to Fire Station Pattan in 1980 and since then there has been no up-gradation both in terms of infrastructure and manpower.
They appealed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and concerned legislator Imran Raza Ansari to look into the matter. When Contacted Director General Fire & Emergency Services Department Kashmir has they will try to provide another fire tender to Pattan Fire Station. He, however, said that due to lack of manpower, they are unable to depute more fire fighters. “I assure people that infrastructure will be upgraded and manpower will be increased anyway,” he added.