* DFES to provide live locations of incidents * Aapda Mitras/Sakhis location available for emergency aid
PANAJI
The Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) has set up a unique in-house initiative to send out major emergency incidents, ‘live’ location and brief information in the public domain using updates and an SMS alert service.
This initiative is considered to be useful in case of disaster management which needs combined action from multiple agencies with the support of people.
The alerts will aid people in early response, decision-making, preparedness and mitigation. The notification is given through eSMS, email or both. For the service, users have to register on the website https://dfes.goa.gov.in.
“Apart from responding and deploying resources to tackle fire and emergency incidents across the state of Goa, our control room has developed a mechanism to record and collate data received from north south and central zones and decimate it”, informed DFES Director Nitin Raiker.
“The department has implemented a quick notification system to stakeholders outside the department including officials of the Disaster Management Cell of both districts, media and other interested persons,” he said.
Raiker said with the system in place, information is sent out in real-time about major fires and non-fire incidents attended by the DFES.
The link for live calls (https://dfes.goa.gov.in/disaster-management/live-calls) link provides systematic geo-tagged information of incidents occurring in real time across the State, Raiker added.
The link for the disaster management response plan (http://dfes.goa.gov.in/disaster-management/disaster-management-response-plan) provides systematic geo-tagged information of fire station locations, nearest water resources, cyclone shelters, equipment and manpower available for disaster response, mutual aid agencies and major hazardous unit.
Raiker said information about additional force of Aapda Mitra/Sakhi are also available with the location.
The link also provides information of which Aapda Mitra/Sakhi is available at the nearest location, so that immediate help of the trained Aapda Mitra/Sakhi can be sought.
Around 350 Aapda Mitra/Sakhi (250 men and 100 women) are available in different locations of Goa, even in remote areas like Netravali, beside the regular strength of 737 fire personnel in 17 fire stations.
“The interesting part of this system is that one can directly call on the click button available with the information of Aapda Mitra/Sakhi without wasting time to dial the number”, said Raiker.
“The government offers Rs 379 per day to these Aapda Mitra/Sakhis with the grant received from the central assistance scheme,” he said.
The DFES also provides statistical brief information of incidents occurring across the State.
All these cost-effective facilities have been created by the fire department with a lot of effort in house, said Raiker.
“The department even has plans to share the locations of schools, hospitals on the websites so that the data can be used in emergency situations,” he added.
