Understanding the rise in fire incidents in Jammu and Kashmir

In the first three months of the current year, there were no less than 146 fire incidents in the summer capital Srinagar, causing damage to property worth 2.5 billion rupees and also resulting in a number of deaths and injuries. Moreover, the last few years have seen a steady increase in the annual number of fire incidents. This trend, in tandem with the increase in residential fires across India, is alarming and necessitates an evaluation of fire safety measures followed (or ignored) towards enhancing the safety of people and the protection of properties.

Troubling fire incidents across Jammu and Kashmir

In late March, a short circuit led to a fire breaking out in a house located in the Noor Bagh area of Srinagar, quickly spreading to engulf 20 houses. Sustained efforts of no less than nine fire tenders for several hours led the fire to finally subside, although by that time massive property damage had already taken place. In a separate incident that evening, a case of fire broke out in the Rajouri Kadal area and caused damage to two houses. Earlier that month, another short circuit, this time in a scrap shop located in a lane opposite the Tourism Reception Centre on Residency Road, Jammu, led to an LPG cylinder blast, resulting in a massive fire that claimed the lives of four people, including a child, and landed 15 others in the Government Medical College, Jammu, having sustained burn injuries of various degrees. These incidents involving the loss of life and property are painfully familiar to J&K UT. The total number of such incidents recorded in 2021 was as high as 2058, where 1711 houses and 347 shops sustained damage along with 127 electric transformers and 57 cars. 75 people lost their lives and 21 others were injured. The estimated total value of the property involved in these incidents was 112.7 billion rupees, out of which the firefighters were able to save around 105.6 billion rupees while property worth Rs. 6.1 billion rupees were lost. The summer capital Srinagar was, unfortunately, the main center of these incidents, with 614 out of the 2058 incidents taking place there. 

Moreover, a recent fire incident in Nigeen Lake led to several houseboats being burned to ashes, resulting in a loss of residence and livelihoods for the unfortunate owners. A lack of safety measures in the houseboats themselves and a severe lack of fire stations in the numerous lakes and rivers of J&K are the likely causes of incidents like these. 

The rising incidents of fire outbreaks are not mere statistics, but it is important to remember that every single fire incident entails considerable risks and could lead to loss of livelihoods, homes, limbs, or even lives for innocent families. Keeping the massive humanitarian damage caused by fire incidents in mind, the likely causes of such incidents should be revisited in order to arrive at potentially viable solutions. 

Causes of the increased fire incidents in J&K

A number of factors can be attributed to the rising number of fire incidents in recent years. These factors, although discussed separately, relate to and reinforce each other. 

Population growth and Urbanization

Dr. Shujaat Hussain Buch, a civil engineer specializing in fire and earthquake engineering, has traced a lot of the problems related to the rising number of residential fire incidents in Jammu and Kashmir to population growth in the region. The lack of space created by a rising urban population is generally compensated by the construction of multi-story buildings, without roads being widened. This creates a situation that increases the risk of fire hazards. Increased population also leads to the congestion and blockage of approach lanes, making it difficult for fire extinguishing mechanisms like fire brigades to reach fire-engulfed structures. This is especially the case in some new gated colonies which do not leave room for approach lanes. Thus, population growth leads to unplanned urban growth which itself leads to the congestion and blockage of approach lanes, leading to an increase in response time, ultimately resulting in more structures being engulfed in flames by the time firefighters can reach them. New townships and settlements at the fringes of cities are propping up in hilly areas where the topography makes it impossible for fire brigades to reach these settlements if the need arises. 

Infrastructural negligence

While unplanned urban growth has made the task of effectively extinguishing the fire before it spreads to other structures difficult, some of the responsibility for rising fire incidents also has to lie with the common householder’s long-term and quotidian decisions regarding residential infrastructure. A lack of mindfulness in these matters often leads to unfortunate but otherwise avoidable fire incidents. 

In recent years, the main building material in the Valley has shifted from wood to concrete, which is generally considered an encouraging move with regard to maintaining fire safety. However, the use of wood and other combustible materials in the houses of Jammu and Kashmir has hardly decreased. The need for proper thermal insulation in concrete houses has given rise to paneling with wood, for example. Many also like to build their interior walls, floors and ceilings of wood for aesthetic reasons. Using old and faulty gas heaters can and do lead to leakages and fire incidents. Wiring is another important, but generally overlooked aspect of infrastructural awareness with many houses still having wiring systems that are twenty or thirty years old. When old wiring systems are not replaced with new, stronger systems but new gadgets like air conditioners are added to the ranks of electronic products in the household, the members of said households immensely increase the risk of short-circuiting the system and starting fires that may leave them homeless. The same can be said for private shop-owners as well. Keeping combustible materials like wood and coal in areas like the kitchen and the attic are also common mistakes that increase the risk of fire incidents,

Lack of proper Fire Extinguishing Mechanisms

According to a report by RMSI, different areas in India suffer from a shortage of fire extinguishing mechanisms. Jammu and Kashmir is no exception. Bashir Ahmad Shah, the Deputy Director of the Fire & Emergency Services Department, has stated that while the department has around 3000 personnel and 250 fire tendering vehicles currently in operation, the number needs to immediately increase to 5000 personnel and 300 fire tendering vehicles in order to fulfill the needs of the Union Territory. According to Shah, there are presently 114 fire tendering stations in the UT, with 23 of them being situated in Srinagar itself. However, most of these have not been registered as they are only makeshift arrangements. Moreover, even though the Fire & Emergency Services Department has submitted the government with 92 potential sites for new fire stations, no new fire station has been established for the last five years due to administrative reasons. The only River Fire Station that the former state had, if kept and upgraded, could have prevented recent fire incidents in like Nigeen lake, was shited in 2008 to Kohna Khan and was kept in a makeshift arrangement. Finally and perhaps most importantly, most of the common householders do not bother to buy and install fire extinguishers in their homes which, if used at the proper time, may greatly diminish the pressure currently on the Fire & Emergency Services Department and ensure that potential cases of fire outbreaks will be dealt with at the local level. Sometimes, even institutional structures do not have proper fire safety mechanisms in place, putting a number of people associated with these institutions at great risk of losing livelihood, limb, or life. The unfortunate damages caused by a devastating fire earlier this year at Bone & Joint Hospital, Barzulla, is a good example of how institutional neglect puts people and property at risk.

Recommendations

As the trend of rising population density in the cities and resultant unplanned urbanization with little to no regard for fire safety mechanisms has shown no sign of changing its course so far, more and more places are likely to be outside the reach of the fire stations, especially if the ideal response time of 5-7 minutes is to be kept in mind. Hence, Dr. Shujaat Hussain Buch seems to suggest that the most effective solutions to this growing problem have to come from the individual, family and community levels. 

1. Fire spreads in three stages: ignition (the first two minutes of fire, when it is just a spark), combustion (when the spark finds combustible material and starts to spread) and spread (when the fire engulfs more rooms, floors and eventually, multiple structures). Ideally, residential fires can and should be put out by the residents in the ignition stage if any real damage is to be avoided. To this end, every residence must have a fire extinguisher in it. They are cheap, easy to use and easy to maintain and can save life and property if the situation calls for it. Fire extinguishers should be kept in the kitchens as they have the most likely chances of ignition. Foam-based extinguishers are most effective in putting out residential fires. Able-bodied adult family members should train themselves in using these fire extinguishers in order to be effective if the need arises.
2. Combustible materials in houses should be removed as far as possible. There are many materials now available as alternatives to wood when it comes to paneling: these materials are fire-resistant and some are cheaper than wood. They are aesthetically pleasing as well. Wooden windows should be replaced by UPVC windows and glasses should be double-glazed. The kitchen door and other appliances should be made of non-combustible material. Even if portions of residential homes are made of wood, there are cheap but effective fire-resistant coatings available that should be used on these parts in order to prevent potential fire outbreaks. Combustible materials like wood, coal and other things should be removed from the attic. These should instead be kept in outhouses or trenches cut outside the houses in order to ensure safety. LPG cylinders should be kept outside the kitchen, ideally in an underground chamber dug out for this purpose outside the house. That way, even in the case of leakage or blast, the house will be comparatively safe.
3. The residents should have the condition of their wiring periodically checked by electricians and change the wiring if necessary. Conduit wires should be used for protection against potential fires. Wires should not be placed on the ceiling below the wooden paneling as this greatly increases the risk of fire outbreaks. 
4. At institutional levels, fire safety mechanisms must be in place, in order to ensure this, Bashir Ahmad Shah opines that NOCs should be obtained from the Fire & Emergency Services Department in order to establish commercial or other institutions. Not only should fire safety mechanisms be in place but staffers or other members of the institution should be trained in operating these mechanisms in order to prevent fire from spreading should it be ignited. At college and University levels, volunteer squads of willing students should be trained in the use of these mechanisms to create an effective internal defense against such hazards. 
5. Dr. Buch opines that local support systems can and should be developed at the community level to prevent residential fires. For example, community leaders and youth can be trained in fire safety mechanisms and practices. A community water reservoir should be also established to counter potential fire hazards. Neighbors and acquaintances can discourage each other from violating fire safety norms. The well-to-do in community should come forward to help those who lost their property and homes in fire incidents. 

While the most effective immediate solutions to fire hazards at this point should come from local and community levels, there is also room for the administration to take more responsibility in ensuring that fire hazards can be decreased in the long run.

6. The first and foremost duty of the government is to properly rehabilitate the victims of fire hazards.
7. The administration should engage in awareness drives to make citizens aware of the importance of adhering to fire safety rules and employing fire safety mechanisms. These awareness drives can also make people aware of how to make infrastructural adjustments in their households to reduce the risk of fire hazards. 
8. The government can also encourage and, if possible, partially finance, the establishment of community-level fire safety mechanisms. 
9. Increased emphasis must be placed on ensuring that the manpower and technological needs of the Fire & Emergency Services Department be met. To this end, new fire stations as per the recommendations of the department should be established, new personnel recruited and properly trained and high-tech vehicles are made available at the district level. Special emphasis should be placed on establishing River Fire Stations, given the importance of houseboats for UT’s economy.
10. Strict rules should be established requiring NOCs to be issued by the Fire & Emergency Services Department for any residential or commercial establishment to operate so that the implementation of fire safety mechanisms may be monitored. Special emphasis should be laid on bringing houseboats under the ambit of these rules, since the Nigeen lake incident has made it painfully clear that they are not immune from fire hazards.
11. Future urban planning must be sensitive toward potential fire hazards and structural challenges like widening approach lanes and choosing friendly topography for fire stations to ensure reduced response time must be implemented. 

Conclusion

In the wake of devastating fire outbreaks in Jammu and Kashmir, it is high time for stakeholders at every level, ranging from government authorities to individual householders, to implement changes to ensure that the tragedies that have triggered the renewed discussion on this issue do not repeat themselves. Keeping in mind the terrible human cost of these incidents, the stakeholders at various levels must cooperate with a shared understanding of the urgency of the situation. Special emphasis, in these coordinated efforts, must be laid on empowering not only the Fire & Emergency Services Department but individuals and communities at the local level so that fire incidents can be prevented easily. Only by sustained, coordinated, and compassionate efforts can it be hoped that potential fire incidents are minimized.

References

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