Delhi Fire Services Proposes 25-Year Plan to Recruit 25,000 Personnel
The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) has drawn up a comprehensive 25-year roadmap to modernize its firefighting capabilities across Delhi, proposing the recruitment of more than 25,000 additional personnel and a major expansion of its fire station network.
The blueprint was prepared after Chief Minister Rekha Gupta directed relevant government departments to formulate a long-term firefighting master plan. This directive followed three major fire tragedies in Palam, Vivek Vihar, and Malviya Nagar earlier this year, which collectively claimed more than four dozen lives in March, May, and June.
The 23-page plan outlines a transition from a reactive firefighting system to one focused on prevention and early detection. It incorporates advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence for dispatching trucks, drones for live visual streaming, and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled smart building systems that connect directly to the Fire Control Room.
To address infrastructure shortages, the DFS plans to expand its network from the current 71 fire stations to 100 by 2030, 120 by 2032, and 196 by 2051. The plan proposes constructing 49 new stations in the first six years, followed by four stations annually. This expansion aims to bring the average response time down from 12 to 15 minutes to under seven minutes in congested areas.
The DFS is also facing a severe manpower crisis. The department currently has a sanctioned strength of 3,051 personnel, which is far below the 12,274 required to run a "1+1" duty system of 24 hours on and 24 hours off. The shortage is most acute among fire operators, where the department has only 2,367 of the required 9,553 personnel. To resolve this, the DFS has projected a need for 9,223 additional personnel over the next three years alone, leading up to a total recruitment of over 25,000 personnel over the quarter-century timeline.
According to DFS data, emergency calls in the capital have risen by 135 percent over the last two decades, jumping from 15,718 in 2007-08 to 36,877 in 2025-26. Annual casualties have also increased from 351 to approximately 1,480 over the same period. The roadmap has been submitted with phased timelines of five, 10, 15, and 25 years to bring Delhi's emergency response to an advanced global standard.
