When firefighters risked Covid, live wires & floods in line of duty
Times of India | 1 day ago | 19-05-2022 | 04:47 am
Times of India
1 day ago | 19-05-2022 | 04:47 am
Panaji: This time last year the fire and emergency personnel doubly risked their lives in the line of duty as they battled the ravages of the Cyclone Tauktae knowing full well they were exposed to the risk of Covid-19, which at that time was at the peak of its second wave in the state and several thousands has succumbed to the virus. “Our fire station alone registered around 400 calls. People began queueing up and politicians began sitting in the office and pressuring us to send teams to their areas as trees had fallen on homes, roads and electrical infrastructure,” a fire station operator said. “We ourselves had power supply cut off for around three days. Our telephones and UPS backup went off and our wireless systems stopped and fire personnel used their personal numbers to communicate. It felt like war time. At the same time people were calling with requests to sanitise areas where there was an outbreak of Covid-19,” he added. The trees — mango, banyan, nilgiri, casuarina, gulmohar, tamarind, jackfruit — that the cyclone brought down were huge and took fire personnel two to three hours to cut. The cutter they handled itself weighed five kilograms. Fire personnel also took the assistance of private tree cutters. They worked closely with panchayats and municipalities as well as the electricity department, checking with them each time about live wires, etc. Such was the impact of the cyclone that the teams would set off to attend to a call but end up clearing the damage caused by several other fallen trees along their way to be able to reach their final destination. “We would be on our way to attend to calls when along the route people would stop our vehicle and ask for help. The difference between this and other cyclones was that we had to be on our toes all the time. We managed to tackle it because of team work. Without that nothing would have been possible,” firefighter Sairaj Naik said. Blocked roads meant that it took firefighter Richard Trindade two hours to reach the Mapusa fire station to report for duty from Pernem, which was otherwise a 45-minute journey for him. Fire personnel got injured on the job, requiring stitches and other treatment. Many said it was not possible to carry out the strenuous work of clearing trees off roads, houses and power infrastructure and rescuing people from inundated areas with their masks on continuously. In one incident, with the rains and winds continuing, the branch of a tree came crashing down on the head and shoulders of one of Trinidade’s colleagues knocking the fire personnel unconscious for a few minutes while they were attending to another tree fall case. “He didn’t know what had happened and was taken by surprise. If he wasn’t wearing a helmet he would have been seriously injured,” Trindade said. In rescue operations from flood hit areas, some seniors were not ready to leave their homes and needed lots of convincing, he added. The Mapusa fire station that looked after almost the entire North coastal belt, which was badly affected, was kept on its toes. Some firefighters like Shaylesh G Tari were on leave, but all leaves were cancelled as the damage was too much to handle and they were all asked to report on duty early morning. “We may have cut up and cleared around 200 fallen trees during that week. We had handled cyclones earlier, but this one caused widespread damage to people’s property and electrical equipment. In addition, we tackled rain, heavy wind and Covid while on the job,” he said. Fire personnel worked overtime and even stayed over at the fire station for days to be able to attend to all the calls. Leading firefighter Vishnu B Gawas said his family was left worried each time he returned home from duty and prayed he wouldn’t carry Covid into the home where there were elderly and children. “It was a big risk working during the second wave, but we had to take it. We didn’t know when we would be the next casualty of Covid, but we were proud to do our job and provide service to society. Our teams even crossed the Maharashtra border and went into Muneri from Dodamarg to help and we enjoyed our work,” he said. During rescue operations at flood hit areas in Revora and Pernem, firefighters also risked entering water bodies during the day and night to rescue stranded people even as the fear of encountering crocodiles loomed large. “Our families don’t always know the kind of risks we take and we don’t tell them. It’s only when we are felicitated or when our efforts are reported that they find out much later and gain new respect for their husbands, fathers, brothers,” Gawas said.
![When firefighters risked Covid, live wires & floods in line of duty]()
