Representative Image
Noida: Taking cognizance of repeated incidents of minor or major fire at highrises in Noida and Great Noida, the fire service department, Gautam Budh Nagar, agreed to conduct awareness on precautionary and safety measures to sensitise residents.
This was an outcome of joint meeting between Noida Federation of Apartments Owners Associations (NOFAA) for high rises and officials of fire services. It was held on Wednesday at the office of fire services in Sector 2, Noida.
Rajiva Singh, President of NOFAA, said that a very productive meeting was held with Arun Kumar Singh, Chief Fire Officer at his office on fire safety awareness program for high rise dwellers.
He said that Arun Kumar Singh agreed to conduct fire safety workshops, training of residents on fire safety and fire safety drills on regular basis for highrises. “A pre-planned schedule needs to be shared with NOFAA for conducting the same,” he said.
He said that societies can form clusters of highrises and share a schedule for workshops. Members of NOFAA were informed to come up with with their schedules and share the same, so that needful can be done.
The biggest challenge which the CFO expressed was low turnout of people in earlier workshops. “This needs to be improved,” Singh said.
Explaining the process for obtaining NOC and also the online process for the same, he said that these can be made part of these training workshops, though the online process is simple and self explanatory.
According to Arun Kumar Singh, the department continuously keeps upgrading and also putting in request for further upgradations of fire fighting equipment with competent authorities. More fire stations are also being planned for the city in a phased manner.
The issue of regular fire safety audits was also discussed in the meeting. It can be conducted once in a month. Same can be done after NOFAA can make a priority list . “Societies (old) which have been recently provided with NOC may not be required an immediate audit. It can be taken up at a later stage,” NOFAA president said.
Some societies facing an issue of accessibility of fire tenders in case of fire needs to be addressed during the audit. This issue can be addressed on case to case basis.
The CFO agreed to NOFAA's proposal of creating disaster management teams in various sectors in Noida. “As a first step, volunteers, who are willing to come forward in taking this responsibility, may share their mobile details so that a WhatsApp group of this disaster management team can be formed. Once the group is formed, training shall be imparted to these volunteers,” Singh added.
A uniform list of the dos and don'ts for residents in high rise societies shall be shared by the fire service department shortly.
