PMC

garbage

Uruli Devachi

Prashant Ranpise

chief fire officer

visibly irked fireman

Hadapsar

Bhavani Peth

fireman

Suresh Jagtap

Pune Municipal Corporation

City garbage is making life hell for firefighters. With the civic body’s disposal plans hitting a wall since long, citizens have started setting dumps on fire. Not only is this increasing the air pollution, it has spurred firemen to action with around 25 calls per day since the last four-five days. Generally, the fire department tackles a similar number of calls during Diwali.Villagers inhave been protesting against the the dumping of city garbage. Adding to that, PMC has stopped placing garbage vats across the city, making way for their collection vehicles that only pick up the garbage in segregated form. However, people are still dumping mixed garbage at the locations where the vats were kept, setting the heap on fire to keep the area clean.“The garbage heaps contain both biodegradable and non-biodegradable material. While putting the fire out is not much of a problem, the amount of smoke is definitely a point of concern. The blaze causes a lot of air pollution and it is imperative that we put it out before the entire heap is gutted,” saidNot that Hanjer is any better. One or two fire tenders are called in at the garbage depot on a daily basis.“Most of these fires take place at night. Most calls come in from the densely-populated areas like Peth areas. The smoke causes problems like soreness of eyes and throat infections. Those residing in the outskirts sometimes throw the garbage in mines or dug-out trenches,” added Ranpise.These fires are also causing a strain on manpower. Stating that such fires are causing unnecessary emergencies, asaid, “We have to douse garbage fires now. It is such a waste of time.”He narrated an incident atindustrial area that took place on Monday. “A part of a private firm caught fire. However, the closest fire tender had gone to the garbage depot. We had to send one from the main office in. This whole mess increased the time by 45 minutes as we also had to look up the address. Had that fire tender not gone to the garbage depot, they would have located the place in no time.”However, this is not the only problem. A tanker was also unavailable as the on-duty drivers were pressed into service elsewhere.“We found one en-route but couldn’t take it since we did not know if the tank was full. Finally, we just took the fire tender. Fortunately, the water in the tender was enough. Had there been a bigger blaze, we would have been in a grave situation,” he added.Anotheradded, “This is leading to shortage of manpower. Burning of garbage emits carbon, we have to bear the stench and our pipelines get covered with muck.”On the other hand,, head of’s solid waste management department, seemed to try to take a strict stand.“If our staff is found burning garbage, we will levy a fine on them. Even the citizens are advised not to set it on fire. They should hand it over to us instead. For wet garbage, we are using biogas plants. Also, we are in the process of finding a suitable disposal method for dry garbage. We will take action if citizens burn garbage,” he said.