Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services

Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services
We Serve To Save
Agency overview
Fire chief R C Kudawla
EMS level BLS
Facilities and equipment
Stations 300
Ambulances 80
Website
tnfrs.tn.nic.in

The Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services department is a service department of the Government of Tamil Nadu whose function is to fight fires and provide relief measures in times of calamities and disasters in Tamil Nadu.[1]

A fire truck in Chennai

Having 302 fire stations spread all over the state and 2 Rescue stations, one at Hogenekal and other at Kotagiri, the department is currently the second largest in the country after the one in Uttar Pradesh. Currently, it has 6,700 personnel.[2]

History

Fire services in Tamil Nadu was introduced in 1908 with the formation of a Madras City Fire Brigade, a year after a major fire in the commissioner of revenue administration, land record office.[2] Initially, the department comprised some steam or manually operated engines stationed in important parts, which were maintained by the Madras Corporation. [3]

The organisation was based on British pattern and the real fillip came during 1942 at the time of the Second World War. During 1967, a separate department for Fire Services was created and all operations were brought under it. [2]

Organisational Structure

The headquarters of Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services department is in Chennai.[4]

The Department is under the administrative control of the Home Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. An IPS Officer in the rank of Director General of Police is the Head of the Department. The regions of Tamil Nadu are divided into 32 Divisions, each Division being controlled by a Divisional Officer. Each Division has 4 to 16 Fire and Rescue Services Stations. As of 2011, there were 299 Fire and Rescue Services Stations throughout the State, apart from 2 exclusive Rescue Stations at Hogenakkal and Kothagiri.[5]

Women in Service

The department was the first to appoint a woman Fire Officer in the country.[6] In 2003, the department appointed 38-year-old Meenakshi Vijayakumar as a Divisional Fire Officer, making her the first female Fire Officer in the country. She was later awarded the President's Fire Service Medal for Gallantry in 2013 for a rescue operation in Chennai. Around the same time, Priya Ravichandran was appointed as its second woman officer.[7][8] She was posted in Coimbatore and later appointed as the Divisional Officer for Chennai, thus becoming the first woman in the country to hold the post of a divisional officer.[9] This was followed up with the selection of eight more women officers in 2009.[10] In 2013, the department inducted its second batch of women fire-fighters.[11]

Training facility

The State Training Centre of the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services, earlier at Mint area in North Chennai, was shifted to its present location, Tambaram in the year 2000. The Tambaram facility is built on a six-acre land, which acts as a training ground for more than 2,000 personnel annually, including TNFRS freshers and fire officers, fire personnel from other states, firemen from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and personnel from private firms in the city. [12]

References

  1. ↑ "AIMS & OBJECTIVES of TNF&RS". Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "On high alert to meet civic emergencies with motto 'We Serve to Save'". MotorIndia. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "TN as model of fire safety for West Bengal". The Times of India. 17 October 2008. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  4. ↑ R. Sinnakani (2007). Tamil Nadu State: Thoothukudi District. ... Government of Tamil Nadu, Commissioner of Archives and Historical Research.
  5. ↑ Home, Prohibition and Excise Department
  6. ↑ "Women firefighters soon in century-old male bastion". The Indian Express. Mumbai. 4 March 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "Meet India's first woman fire officer". Rediff. 5 August 2003. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  8. ↑ "Woman fire officer to get President's Gallantry Medal". The New Indian Express. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  9. ↑ Peter, Petlee (1 May 2012). "Women-Power: Serving to save". The Hindu. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  10. ↑ "Training for women station fire officers begins". The Hindu. Tambaram. 17 September 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  11. ↑ K, Manikandan (8 November 2013). "Second batch of women firefighters begins training". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  12. ↑ "Fire training regimes hit". The Hindu. 5 June 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
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