His father Mr.Bhatt was a Fearless brave heart fire-fighter and the senior most Chief Fire Officer and also one of the most pioneers of the Indian Fire Service, who had been awarded as Four time president Fire Service medals for ,meritorious, distinguish, Gallantry, VSM Service. His Father was also awarded Gallantry Bravery medal by the Governor of Gujarat & also by the Mayor of Ahemdabad & Surat city for his highly decorated fire service asset to the Gujarat state. His Father's name was in the Hall of Fame of Fire-fighters as he had always led from the front and saved countless number of lives. Mr.Rajesh Bhatt had grown up watching his father risk his life every day and was amazed by the dedication he had towards his fire department. He was an inspiration for Him and so he decided to become a firefighter. He left his bachelors half away and joined National Fire Service College for Fire Engineering and also did many specialization technical courses from there abroad too. After completing the technical courses, he was directly selected at Ahmedabad Fire Brigade as a Station Fire Officer.
Mr. Rajesh Bhatt Tell Team Fire & Safety his side of story
“It has been 33 years since I am associated with Fire Department and from a simple station officer I became additional Chief Fire Officer of the city and I am happy that I have been part of many big and deadliest rescue operations and saved countless number of lives. All over the world in the Fire Department the motive is that to take care of yourself first and then save others, India is the only country where we have the motive of saving others first without thinking of our own selves.”
“At the age of 20, I was the youngest firefighter in the whole Gujarat. This job has its own pros and cons; we fight with death on daily basis. We play hide and seek with fire as our only aim is to put other people's lives above our own life and jump into unprecedented situations in the most unfamiliar conditions.”
The Initial Years
“In the initial years of my job I came against a very saddening scenario which were communal riots in the city where one human was on a motive to kill another human and we had to save people in a scenario where stones, petrol bottles, glasses were being thrown at us, that was a very saddening time for the city. Another saddening scenario is where a family of seven was burned alive and that makes you think that in which direction the humanity is heading? There have also been incidents where due to people's carelessness someone else's house gets burnt.”
Fire Calls During Diwali
“I have seen many examples where during Diwali, firecrackers destroy the hut of poor people and at that time you feel so helpless. Your enjoyment should not be done by bringing tears in someone else's eyes.
Air India Plane Crash
“I have also been part of many big rescue operations, during the 1988 Air India plane crash in the city, I was the first one to visit the site with my team and the sight was horrible. There were fractured dead bodies of 133 people where passengers body parts were cut off; head, hand, legs were lying on the plane and we had to collect all of them and rush the dead bodies to the hospital for the postmortem. One thing that shook me that day was a foreign lady who was pregnant but due to the crash she died and also her unborn child's head had come out and it was full of blood and it took me a lot of months to get over that sight.”
Gujarat Earth Quake
“Another big rescue operation was earthquake in the year 2001 which completely shook the whole city and even as a firefighter it was something new for me as I had never seen earthquake. The city was in a big chaos and whole fire department was divided into teams for different zones.”
Rescue Operations
“The biggest and the deadliest rescue operation was done by our team where it took us more than 32 hours to rescue people who were buried under the buildings. That rescue operation is another story in itself which a small post won't be able to justify. I was also called during Koshi Dam disaster in Bihar, our whole team had gone to worst affected flood area for 14 days and had saved 1189 lives”
Awards & Honoraries
I have been honoured by the President a Fire Service medal for Meritorious Service for Commendable Rescue operations done during the Earthquake . I was also awarded by the Mayor of Ahemdabad for 30 years of Service as a Brave Distinguish Meritorious Medal & apart from these I was honoured by the Government of India a 50 years of independence Medal.
A Special Request Message
As an officer, I have two messages. Firstly, it saddens me that there is very less compensation by the Government whenever a firefighter dies in saving other citizens. The compensation is actually not enough to meet the needs of their families. Just like Army and Police we are also risking our lives to save people, we too have families but there is very little support from the Government as well as people. Secondly, we have started a welfare fund for the families of firefighters who die during the job in rescuing the citizens. I as an officer would be happy if your readers would donate for those families who have lost their bread earning member. And lastly, Be Safe, Live Safe and Let others Live Safe.”
And not forgetting a Firemen Motto
“We Serve to Save”, “We mean it and we will do it”
"Readers can Contact Chief Fire Officers Office for their valued donation.
This fire service benevolent Fund of Ahmedabad Fire Service is Registered under income-tax Act 1961 U S Clause 80 G (5) for entitle of getting an income-tax exemption of 50%. For this respected donners can donate their donation on the name of The Amdavad Fire Service Benevolent ( Paropkari ) Kalyan Fund by A/c payee cross check only. At the office of The Chief Fire Officer, Ahmedabad Fire & Emergency Services.
Danapith Central Fire Station (Hqrs.) Nr. A'bd. Muni. Coroporation.
Danapith Area. Ahmedabad -380001
Contact:- +91 79 2214 84 65 / 66 / 67 / 68."
“Salute to the Nation, Love to the Citizens”