Nepal

The Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City is facing a lack of skilled firefighters.

So, the sub-metropolis is ill-prepared in case a big fire breaks out somewhere in the the city.

Chief of the sub-metropolis Fire Brigade, Jhoin Bahadur Khadka, said fire engines have to be taken to its own office to fill water in lack of water filling station in case fire breaks out.

He shared, "Sometimes, the inferno might have already resulted in huge losses by the time we reach the incident site after filling the fire trucks at the station."

There are three fire engines in Nepalgunj but problems have surfaced in lack of skilled human resources, complained those working in this field.

Chief Khadka opined although at least six fire fighters are required for one fire engine, only 12 human resources are working for three fire engines in Nepalgunj.

Urban Disaster and Earthquake Preparedness Project has been carrying out study about the situation of fire control, and obstacles seen in that connection.

Saying the narrow streets and dense settlements in the sub-metropolis were posing a challenge in fire-fighting in the sub-metropolis, Project Chief Shiva Subedi added there would be a delay in bringing the fire under control in lack of water filling station.

Most of the local levels have no fire engines in Banke district.

Out of eight local levels in Banke, only Kohalpur municipality and Narainapur rural municipality have fire engines.