QRVs, tiny saviours at Chennai’s fire disasters

The not so-mighty looking, jeep mounted QRVs and the bike fire tenders, that squeeze through the narrow lanes of Chennai have put out many a fire before it spread. With almost all commercial buildings constructed violating the mandatory fire safety and building rules, these tiny fire tenders have come to the rescue of people. 

In the year 2015, just after a few months of induction in to the force, the QRVs had attended to 97 fire calls, about 40 per cent of them having a potential of becoming catastrophic fire accidents. In the year 2016, the number of fire accidents QRVs attempted went up to 132 and this year so far, they had doused the flames at 56 places. 

“QRVs are handy in early intervention. We send big fire tenders and QRVs when we receive calls. It is the QRVs that can squeeze through narrow streets and prevent the spread of fire,” Fire and Rescue joint director Shahul Hameed said. The QRV is a jeep mounted fire engine with 350 litres of water holding capacity and 50 litres of pressurised foam. 

“In streets where even QRVs cannot enter, our bike fire engines can reach and fight the calamity. Bike fire engines come handier when fighting fire accidents inside slums and cluttered residential areas,” the fire official said. 

Chennai city has nine QRVs and there are 52 such vehicles across the state. When it comes to city fire accidents, the fire and safety personnel depend more on QRVs. 

“Equipment and facilities are not an issue for the Tamil Nadu fire department, but accessibility to the spot of fire always is. Thankfully, QRVs help us deal with that. But it is high time the authorities dealt the matter regarding violations in building constructions with an iron hand,” another senior fire official said.