Mumbai's fire fighters need more than just a memorial

On May 9, last Saturday afternoon, 47-year-old Sanjay Rane, a senior Mumbai fire brigade officer, telephoned his wife Medha from work and asked her to prepare biryani for dinner. He had not eaten biryani for a while and was craving it. Medha, who works at Breach Candy Hospital, happily agreed. That evening, a major fire broke out at the 100-year old Gokul Nivas building, in a congested lane at Kalbadevi. Rane was killed after he rescued the building's residents, when it collapsed in the fire. His friend and senior colleague Mahendra Desai, 46, too died with him. Medha got to know of her husband's demise only late at night. The biryani had long gone cold.

I visited the Ranes and the Desais - they were all understandably inconsolable. Seeing them face their loss brought tears to my eyes. I strongly feel that we cannot forget our real-life bravehearts, who fight to save your life and mine while paying the price for their dedication. Meanwhile, reel-life heroes who have no value for human life are hailed as demi-gods and let off easily by the law.

I urge chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Ajoy Mehta to do everything in their power to ensure we never forget Rane and Desai. Compensating the families (though I sincerely hope they are attended to quickly and are looked after by the state) and setting up committees (I hope they deliver a strong report on time) is not enough. We need to not only examine the real problems that our fire officers face on the field, but also take measures to improve their service conditions and the state the city is currently in.

If we truly want to honour the lives of Sanjay Rane and Mahendra Desai, we must put in place some basic rules and norms:

# Paying heed to residents’ complaints about dilapidated buildings and potential fire hazards and take swift action thereof.

# Involving citizens in helping combat fire problems through awareness, education and volunteer services.

# Conducting a comprehensive and updated study immediately of potentially hazardous buildings across the city.

# Introducing fire safety certification for all buildings and ask them to submit yearly tests and reports to fire department mandatory.

# Conducting regular fire drills in as many buildings as possible across the city.

# Increasing manpower in the fire department.

# Updating firefighting equipment.

# Scaling up pay (Did you know in New York City in the USA, the starting salary of a firefighter is over INR 2 lakh per month?).

# Taking responsibility (most of the times, the officers responsible pass the buck on to other departments or blame lack of coordination between departments as one of the major reasons for bad conditions).

# Holding someone accountable for the terrible conditions of such places and buildings like Gokul Nivas.

Let us learn from the deaths of the two bravehearts and make this the starting point of enacting major changes in the Mumbai Fire Brigade so that their lives and service do not go in vain. Do not simply build a monument in their names.

I encourage people to send in their ideas on how we can improve Mumbai’s fire service and help these men, who save our lives from death by fire.