Mumbai: The time has passed when Mumbai had fire hydrants painted bright red alongside roads, installed for pumping water to aid firefighting. The roadside fire hydrants installed by the Britishers to pump ground-level water are on the verge of extinction as the city is left with a mere 15 per cent of working hydrants now.
Mumbai had a total of around 10,447 fire hydrants, including the city and suburbs. Thanks to the infrastructural development over the years, around 9,500 are either buried under the roads/pavements or their taps are non-functional.
The objective of the fire hydrants was to pump out water, especially in the bylanes of densely populated city like Mumbai, where the massive fire engines find it difficult to reach. However, with the drastically decreasing number of fire hydrants, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has identified 61 spots where water can be pumped out.
“The firefighting is not delayed due to the decreased number of fire hydrants on the roads as we have jumbo water tankers. We also have sufficient spots identified to pump out more water when needed in case of emergency,” a fire brigade officer said.
The water pressure in the existing fire hydrants is also not sufficient enough to pump out the water. Time and again, there have been demands to make the fire hydrants accessible. However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is neither interested in increasing the fire hydrants nor removing the remaining ones.
“Over the years it has been observed that the fire hydrants are misused by the miscreants. The hydrants were used to fill water tankers and at construction sites. The water pressure in the hydrants is also not sufficient. Thus, it was decided to not revive the fire hydrants,” a senior officer from BMC’s Hydraulic Department said.
It was in 2019 when a state legislative committee had sought the revival of the 10,000-plus colonial-era fire hydrants in Mumbai. The public accounts committee had called for mandatory installation of internal fire-fighting systems in buildings and training residents for primary response during an emergency.
