YK Poudel

For an effective response to fire disasters in the country, Tarayana Foundation handed over a total of 2,000 sets of fire safety uniforms worth USD 400,000  to the De-suung Office yesterday.

Initiated by Thomas Wilson and Julia Booth, who have been to Bhutan in 2015, the uniforms were donated by Fire and Rescue, New South Wales, Australia.

Fire Disaster Focal Person of De-suung Head Office, Thinley Dorji, said that the fire safety sets will help firefighters combat fire more efficiently.




“Being a trained firefighter and a de-suup, I am confident the equipment will be of great help during emergencies,” he said.

Prakash Ghalley, a de-suup, said that such support has come at the right time. “I have undergone fighting training from Kolkata and have attended over 15 fire incidents in the country. I am confident that the volunteers will now be able to provide timely service.”

This is an important development in an extended programme to assist the capacity building and the equipment supply for the de-suups and the Bhutanese firefighters.




Chief Planning Officer of the De-suung Head Office, Tandin Dorji, said that fire suppression time has decreased remarkably as a result of advancements in emergency response. “The De-suung Fire Service has trained 134 de-suups in seven different batches as of now.”

Thimphu, he said “ is a fire disaster-prone dzongkhag which is divided into four mega zones, where we have Rapid Response Team (RRT) with 15 de-suups in each zone. These fire safety uniforms will be provided individually to the RTT who will be the first person to respond in a fire disaster.”

De-suung Head Office will also distribute fire safety uniform to fire disaster-prone dzongkhags.