Aripal residents demand fire service station
Pulwama: The residents of Aripal area of Tral Sub division in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday demanded setting up of a fire service station in their area.
The residents said that Aripal Tehsil comprises over 50 villages with a population of thousands of people but was deprived of the facility of a fire and emergency station.
The residents said the nearest fire station for them was at Tral which is around 12kms from Aripal.
“At the time of any fire incident, we have to wait for hours for the fire tenders to reach the spot,” said Muhammad Saleem, a local.
“By the time the fire service vehicle reaches Aripal, property worth lakhs gets damaged as it takes around one hour for fire tenders to reach the spot,” he said.
He said the people of Aripal approached successive governments for setting up a fire service station at Aripal Tehsil headquarter, but to no avail.
The residents said that during past years they lost property worth crores due to the lack of a fire service station in the area.
“Even this year, some fire incidents took place in the area which could have been controlled on time, had there been a fire service station,” a local said.
They urged the higher ups to look into the matter and set up a fire service station in the Aripal area.
“The facility will avoid any major damages during any untoward incident,” he said.
