The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The second-hand one that RBP has is not working
On 12th June 2024, a 22-year-old Desuup lost her life when a fire engulfed a 4-storey building she was staying in after she fell off the roof after hanging on to it for a few minutes.
Her husband sustained injuries as he also fell off but a tree broke his fall and saved his life.
An Indian laborer who tried to save the Desuup broke his leg bones in the process.
At the time of the fire, a fire truck with a ladder could have easily saved the woman and her husband. It would have also been more effective in putting out the fire and lessening property damage.
This was in fact the question posed by members of the public on social media asking why such a truck was not put into use.
The Bhutanese has learnt that around 2012 the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) had proposed to the then Home Ministry to acquire such a truck. However, it was not acquired and instead the Home Ministry got 19 fire trucks as part of the Small Development Projects from the GoI.
The second time a request was made was after the Lungtenphu fire in March 2023 that damaged a lot of semi-permanent structures. However, here too the fire truck with an aerial ladder could not be purchased given the shortage of budget.
Around 2020 the RBP received a German second hand fire truck with an aerial ladder of around 30 meters that would have covered even 4 to 5 storey buildings but within a year by 2021 the software program that ran the hydraulic system for the ladder failed and it could not be repaired.
The RBP used video conferencing with experts in Germany but the software could not be fixed.
The truck was left for a while in the workshop too where there were attempts to repair it, but it did not work.
Then a Japanese team of 3 that had come to train Bhutanese firefighters and offer fire trucks also tried looking at the truck system and they too could not repair it as was outdated.
The result was that it could not be deployed on the night of the Changzamtog fire.
A requisition has been put in the 13th Five Year Plan for one such truck and it remains to be seen if this will get through. This is in addition to requisition for other 11 normal fire trucks.
A RBP source said that the cost of such a truck is Nu 5 million (mn) to Nu 10 mn for the lower end and cheaper ones in India.
In western countries, the price of such ladder trucks varies from Nu 50 mn to Nu 80 mn and more.
So far, the single unit cost may have deterred governments from purchasing such a truck.
The source said that Bhutan does not need the huge bulky fire trucks used in the west or big cities as it will not suit Bhutan’s mountainous terrain and also the narrow roads in cities, but a compact truck is needed.
The German truck, even if functional, would have needed a plane area to stretch out its 4 legs before the ladder is sent up and so such bigger trucks may only be suitable in plane areas with a lot of space. In Bhutan, there is also the issue of overhead wires that complicate things for such a big system.
The RBP feels such ladder trucks are required not only for Thimphu but also for other major urban centers with high rise buildings. It would help to better fight the fire and also save lives.
Thimphu District has a total of 8 fire trucks with one 10,000 liters truck, two 5000 liters truck and rest being 1500 and 1000 liters trucks including some which are just pumpers which help pump water.
Compare this to the fact that even a simple Bago or temporary accommodation fire can drink up to 6 to 7 truckloads of water in a few minutes and may even need more.
A source said that in developed countries they rely more on fire hydrants than trucks in cities and some foreign cities have hydrant every 20 to 50 meters. These hydrants are integrated with the drinking water supply and are pressurized.
In the case of Thimphu there are a few hydrants but most of the time they do not work as the Thromde water supply is usually only two times a day.
The way forward in the future would be build more hydrants in Thimphu and other major cities integrated with the drinking water line but they would need constant water supply.
Past city plans did not incorporate hydrants in the plan.
When a fire occurs in Thimphu the fire trucks usually refill from nearby streams and rivers. The places where two water tanks are kept are Changzamtog and near the RICBL colony.
An RBP official said that most buildings in Thimphu do not have emergency fire escape and this may have to do with Thromde regulations. He said when fighting a fire, it is the same staircase that has to be used for people escaping and also firefighters going up.
The official said in a conventional Thimphu building if the fire starts on the third or fourth floor then those above have no escape and this is what happened in the Changzamtog fire.
He said that people have died in the past in building fires in Thimphu.
In some sense, as Thimphu and other urban areas build high rise buildings and also extend outwards the firefighting system and equipment is still from the time of two-storied buildings.
The whole of Bhutan has 56 fire trucks with 24 fire stations.
A RBP official said the main support they need is budget as everything boils down to budget. From 2019 to 2024 till date there have been a total of 437 house fires in Bhutan and a total of 25 people have died across the country in these fires.
