Odisha fire services will have its own manual
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha fire services directorate has decided to frame a model manual for better management and functioning of the organisation. The directorate has been functioning since 1942 in accordance with the Odisha police manual 1940.
“We have constituted a committee under the chairmanship of our additional director general of police (fire services and home guards) Soumya Mishra. The Odisha fire service Act 1993 had the mandate to prepare its own manual. We are hopeful of drafting our manual in next three or four months,” director general of police (fire services and home guards) Satyajit Mohanty said.
According to the plan, the proposed model manual will define the roles and responsibilities of the personnel of fire stations and the directorate. “We will also have chapters on response during fire call and rescue and disaster management. Procedures of disciplinary action, recruitment policy and career promotion, among others, will also be incorporated in the model manual,” Mohanty said.
He said the directorate should have its own rules and regulations in place as it is a unique organisation in the country with the dual mandate of conventional firefighting and multi-disaster response. The wing has already earned accolades from different states for having extended its helping hand for carrying out rescue and restoration work in the wake of natural calamities.
Disaster management skills became an integral part of the fire service training programme following the catastrophic super cyclone in the state in 1999 that killed over 10,000 people. “Our state is vulnerable to natural calamities like cyclone and floods that occur very often. The state government laid emphasis on effective disaster management after the 1999 super cyclone. We started training them on skills of carrying out rescue and restoration activities during calamities,” another fire official said.
At present, a total of 341 fire stations with around 5,000 personnel exist across the state. Each fire station is also known as fire and emergency response centre (FERC). The fire services personnel are subjected to rigorous training every month. The organisation has three training centres — Odisha fire and disaster response academy (OFDRA) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha fire and disaster response institute (OFDRI) at Naraj in Cuttack district and Odisha state watermanship and lifeguard institute (OSWALI) at Ramchandi in Puri district.