With the growing urbanization, continuous increase in population and frenetic pace of industrialization, the demand for fire and emergency services in the society is increasing at a very fast pace. It has been ascertained through a national survey that in urban areas one Fire Station is required in every 10 square Kilometres and in rural areas one in every 50 Kilometres. Thus the actual requirement of Fire Stations in the state is about 1,400 (one thousand four hundred) against our present strength of 90 (ninety) only. Considering the fund position, the State Government has sanctioned new Fire Stations in a phased manner.
The Fire and Emergency Services includes, besides Fire Fighting, Search, Rescue and Disaster mitigation services too. There is an urgent need for co-ordination with other departments of the administration at the district level for which a proposal for creation of one post of District Fire Officer in every District Head Quarters with few technical Officers has also been submitted.
Geographically the state is in the highly vulnerable seismic zone - V. In any disaster, whether natural or man made, the Fire Service personnel along with the members of the Police Force are the first responders. To ensure that our capability to mitigate disaster is nurtured properly, adequate resources need to be made available including modern tools and equipments.
We are constantly building our capacity to do just that and by the year 2020 we are looking at a much bigger and efficient Organisation with close to 250 (two hundred fifty) Fire and Emergency Service Stations with about 5000 (five thousand) Fire and Emergency Service personnel fully dedicated and geared up to serve the people of the State to the best of their ability.