The men and women who yearn for what they fear, find their playground in the inferno. Not so glamorized as their western counterparts, the Indian firefighters plunge into rooms with walls ablaze and crumbling down, the noxious smoke and the terrified faces, with or without the perfect tools for the job. Spare a moment to delve a little more into the lives those who flirt with fire for their bread and butter. The sad but true story of the Indian firemen The firemen of Mumbai are believed to be the employees of one of the richest civic bodies of the nation. However, quite interestingly, they are not entitled to any insurance scheme for paying hospital bills for in case they’re injured at work. If you think it is shocking that firefighters are not entitled to insurance or medical claim, you should know that until 2014, there was no procedure for the fire brigade authorities to admit an injured firefighter to a private hospital even if the public hospitals are far away. Vishwajit Nikam, Additional Divisional Fire Officer, was seriously injured at work in 1992 when his ambulance driver drove him to a nearby private hospital as there were no public hospitals around. The fire brigade filed a charge-sheet against the driver for saving Nikam’s life and Nikam, on the other hand, shed Rs 1 lakh on his own for his treatment.

The firemen are fooled that their uniforms are fireproof.

When 3 firemen lost their lives in 2015 at the Kalbadevi building fire, the employees took a stand and demanded better gear and equipment through a letter addressed to Ajoy Mehta, the BMC chief.

Ramakant Bane, the union secretary laid it out at a press conference at the wake of the unfortunate incident of the Kalbadevi building fire that Personal Protective Appliance provided that the firefighters are provided with are of the poorest quality and they’re far from fireproof as the officers claim them to be.

The legacy of Sudhir Amin

The protests that were ignited after the loss of lives at the Kalbadevi building owes much of its impetus to the loss of one of the finest firefighters of the department, Sudhir Amin. He put his name in the Hall of Fame of firefighters as he led from the front during the ghastly attacks of the 26/11.

It was in those infernal blazes that one of his colleagues was seriously injured and due to lack of money was turned away by the private hospital. Amin paid Rs 1 lakh of his own money to get him admitted shaming the BMC. So, when the legend himself succumbed to the fire at Kalbadevi years later, BMC was questioned again by agitated employees which forced the authorities to make emergency funds available in 2015.