Hell and high water

Routine: Appointed nodal officer at the flood control centre,Ishwarlal fields calls from across the city

It has been 10 days since the rains first wreaked havoc on the Pink City but Ishwarlal Jat’s two cellphones haven’t stopped ringing. Hundreds of dead mice were found floating in the Talkatora lake,a dry lake in the Walled City which received so much rain that it now has 10-ft deep water. Rumours of plague had started doing the rounds. That was when Ishwarlal’s team was called in for additional support. Chief Fire Officer Ishwarlal was appointed nodal officer at the flood control centre which was set up to handle the countless SOS calls from across the city.

On the first two days,August 21 and 22,Ishwarlal alone received at least 500 calls on his cellphones. The flood control room has no count of the calls they received but Ishwarlal’s rough estimate is not less than a thousand. “Soon after the city started flooding on the night of August 21,we were called in for emergency rescue services. The fire department is always the first to be called in such cases. It was later decided that three flood control rooms will be set up across the city,with the headquarters at Bani Park. For the first two days,most of the core team members worked round the clock. The situation was really bad. Not only did people make phone calls seeking help but large crowds gathered outside the office asking us to reach help to their neighbourhoods. Sand bags were literally being looted as the affected people jostled to grab as many as possible.”

Grappling with a gaping scarcity of manpower and material—50 fire tenders (used to reach inaccessible heights) and 232 firemen—Ishwarlal sent out teams of officials and vehicles to the worst-affected localities first. “However,the state government did take some quick decisions and asked us to call in additional contractors to supply hydras,levelers,tractors and mudpipes. The rescue-and-relief operations took a lot of time. We had to work round the clock,evacuating victims stuck in inundated areas and pumping out water from houses.”

Ishwarlal recalls how he barely managed to catch some sleep for the first few days. Though 10 days later the situation has improved and,as Ishwarlal says,only about 50 calls a day are coming in,there has been no respite. His walky-talky does not stop blaring out messages and his phone keeps ringing. “Though the rains have receded,there is still a lot of work to be done. Places like Madrampura,Bhatta Basti,Brahmapuri,Kalwar Road,Jhotwara still need a lot of help,” Ishwarlal says. Amid the frenzy,his wife calls,asking if he would come home to Sikar this weekend. “The forecast says it might rain again this weekend. Do not wait for me. Maybe next week,” he tells her,rather apologetically.

“This is not the first time that I have disappointed her. Thrice in the last 33 years of my job as a fire officer,my wife has threatened to leave me. She would ask me to choose between her and my job. But she would eventually come around. She knows I have certain responsibilities towards people. In emergency services,you cannot say I will not work now. When you get a call,you have to go. Though even in these circumstances I will not be denied leave but I have a sense of responsibility that tells me this is not the time to take leave,” Ishwarlal explains. “It has been more than two weeks I last went home. I usually visit my family at Sikar every alternate weekend. But this time it has already been two weeks and I don’t think I will manage to go in the next week or so.”

Ishwarlal says on many weekends,he had almost reached his home at Sikar,when he had to turn around. “I would be metres away from home when I would get an emergency call from office and I would ask the driver to take me back to Jaipur. In 2009,a huge fire at the Indian Oil Corporation that raged on for 10 days gave me sleepless days and nights. The serial blasts in the city in 2008 was another time when we were really stressed,” he says.

Ishwarlal recalls how there have been several instances when he has escaped death by a whisker. “In every profession,one has to battle an enemy. The army fights intruders and enemies at the border,police officers fight criminals and,similarly,we firemen fight the natural elements. One will die when one is destined to die. Till then duty calls,” he says,as he picks up his phones and walky-talky,all set to take duty’s call.