A fireman is a very important part of the society doing a respectable job of firefighting and saving lives. Firefighters are susceptible to burns, smoke inhalation and injuries from collapsing structures. They suffer from heat exhaustion and in many cases, long-term job-related illnesses such as asthma, persistent coughing, heart disease, cancer and lung damage. They inhale Carbon as a chemical result of incompletely burnt fuels, oil, gasoline. They suffer from inhaling smoke include headache, dizziness, weakness and confusion causing loss of consciousness and death.
These life savers are fighting fires and protecting people and property from fires. They also rescue people from road traffic accidents, dealing with other specific emergencies such as flooding or terrorists. They protect people’s lives, property and environment from fire and other accidents.
They protect our community from all possible hazards by providing their services with quality precision of high quality emergency services with preventive measures including attending non-fire emergencies due to natural and manmade disasters.
However, in recent times, we see the main role of the fire-fighters and fire brigades have changed. We can see them as tree and wood cutters with chain saws as well as loaders to move the logs. They are also seen lifting fallen electric poles and clearing roads. The humanitarian services, we feel that they are misused and at times abused by the public and government.
Public have personally noticed that people and the panchayats are calling them to cut and clear fallen trees including in private properties, which does not affect public ways or endangering lives. This is a total misuse of their services.
We forget that they are humans and fragile too. We complain about them not doing certain tasks which they demand irrespective of their plight. They battle rain, storms, heat exhaustion, electrical shocks and burns and yet our respect for them is minimal when they are misused and in many cases abused.
Apart from attending emergencies, they are also authorities inspecting and certifying industries and factories in preventing fires. They are the regulatory authorities on behalf of the government to inspect and regulate safety regulations in factories and buildings.
The government should have some deep understanding and sympathy to the Fire Services. They should be provided with proper safety equipments and gears. The government can best do is create another specialized department or delegate the tree cutting and lifting jobs to a special hazard management department.
Private property owners should not be encouraged to use the fire brigade and its staff to meet their own needs to save their own money, there are village panchayats who also take care of these contingencies and if properly addressed to the Forest Department, they too help the people.
Therefore, let us salute these fire fighting heroes for their mammoth service to mankind and let the government ensure that they are compensated through Risk Allowance to atleast to boost their morale.