In the line of fire

A day in the life of Abdul Majeed Sheikh

Fireman, Srinagar

Sheikh's life revolves round a big metal alarm bell that hangs in the fire station. When the bell rings, it means Sheikh has to rush to the fire tender

Last week, Abdul Majeed Sheikh was loitering in the garden when the bell rang. He rushed to the garage, jumped on to a fire tender and left for Khanyar in old Srinagar city. In five minutes, he was outside the shrine of Sheikh Syed Abdul Qadir Jeelani, fighting the blaze and an unruly crowd.

Sheikh's life revolves round the big metal bell that hangs in the fire station at Babademb, less than two kilometers from the shrine in old Srinagar. When the bell tolls—called 'turnout' in the fireman lingo—it means Sheikh has to rush towards the fire tender, no matter where he is or what he is doing. Sheikh, whose family is in Budgam, lives on the fire station campus with 14 other firemen.

Sheikh's day starts at dawn. After a six-hour sleep—most of the nights disturbed by the 'turnouts'—Sheikh gets ready for breakfast. "Mostly fires break out during the night, and I have my breakfast only when I get back to the fire station after work," he says. "We don't make any plans for the day or for the night because we never know when a fire will break out."

Many times, it is not only the raging fire that Sheikh has to control but also rising tempers of the people—as was seen at the Khanyar shrine where the mob damaged more than six fire tenders and beat up many of Sheikh's colleagues. "When we leave on a call, we have only one fear at the back of our minds—how will the people behave?" Sheikh says. "Most of the times, they are angry. They feel we are late. They expect us to be there when the first smoke billows out. They expect us to put out the fire in a minute. It takes us some time to reach the spot. We are not magicians. We are fire fighters."

... contd.

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