February 18, 2019
Robots, fire balls to soon add advanced capabilities to State Fire Dept
The State Fire and Emergency Services Department will soon introduce four robots in its fleet for more effective fire-fighting in Kolkata.
The robots will make accessing difficult places and situations much easier. For example, as the departmental minister explained while announcing this plan recently, firemen face a lot of difficulties in dousing fire, particularly in chemical factories, even getting injured. The robots would make things much easier in such situations..
The department, which is taking a slew of measures for modernisation, is also introducing fire balls. The balls will be used to extinguish fire in very narrow and congested places or in locked buildings where physical entry is extremely difficult. There are plans to procure 2,000 such fire balls, said the minister.
Explaining the usage of fire balls, a senior official of the department said that when a fire ball is thrown into a burning room or place from any small gap, it helps in dousing the fire in ten to fifteen minutes. These balls are used in several countries.
The balls contain ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulphate. They, however, do not explode if accidentally dropped on the ground.
The department has also made plans to give basic training in firefighting to school students and members of various clubs in Kolkata.
Source: Millennium Post
