Baramulla: The people living in Boniyar Tehsil in border town Uri and those living in Narvaw Tehsil in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district are miffed with the fire and emergency services department which has failed to establish even one fire station in their areas.
Locals said that Boniyar is a far-flung area in sub division Uri close to the Line of Control where people live in constant fear of a fire breaking out due to the frequent shelling and firing between Indian and Pakistani armies.
They said that countless people have lost their property and livestock in fire incidents but they are unable to protect them due to no fire tender being available in their area.
“Two dozen residential houses and cowsheds have been damaged in different fire incidents in the past two months in different villages of Boniyar Tehsil. Every time we have to call the army and other security forces for help. Only they come to the help of locals in dousing the flames, while the fire and emergency department, which has a lot of equipment, cannot reach in time because the area is far from Baramulla as well as from Uri town,” a local, Gulam Ahmad, told Kashmir Reader.
“We have been demanding fire services for a long time but due to unknown reasons it has not been established in our tehsil. We have knocked on the doors of every official in the past 15 years and every one assured us, so we don’t understand who is stopping it,” Gulam said.
Sajad Ahmad, another local, said that people voted in the Panchayat and DDC elections in the hope that the elected representatives will be able to do something about this, “but now we understand that they, too, are helpless.”
Similarly, people in Narvaw Tehsil said that they have been struggling for a fire service station for a long time. They said more than 30 villages in Narvaw tehsil are deprived of fire and emergency services. They said that the department should establish a small station with at least one vehicle in the middle of the tehsil at Sheeri.
“We visited the offices of every official, leaders of every political party, and all of them assured that they will help. However, days turned to months and months turned to years while the people are still where they are,” Manzoor Ahmad, a resident of Sheeri, said.
A senior official in the fire and emergency department at Baramulla said that there are several areas like Boniyar, Narvaw and others in district Baramulla where fire stations have to be established. “We have requested the government many times to give the nod, but we, too, wonder why nobody is paying any attention,” the official said.

Reader correspondent