Former firemen in big demand

Many builders in the city are employing retired fire officers for designing fire safety measures and for maintenance of equipment as there is a shortage of fire engineers in the city.
According to the National Building Code, every commercial complex such as malls should have a fire safety manager or a fire officer.

“There are very few colleges which offer courses on fire-engineering. Even the few graduates from the National Fire Service Colleges prefer to work in the private sector due to higher salaries,” said an official.

The National Fire Service College at Nagpur is the only institute in the country offering a bachelor course in engineering (fire) and it has an annual intake of only 30 students. There are, however, some institutes which offer diploma or certificate courses in fire safety.
In the city many buildings provide fire safety equipment but they do not have experts to help in case a situation arises.

“According to the statistics of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the state fire and emergency department, more than 300 buildings in the city lack adequate means of access, escape routes and other fire safety norms,” said Mr P.V. Ramana, the regional fire officer.