New Delhi: Delhi Fire Services (DFS) is facing a serious manpower crunch, with nearly 80% of its fire station officer posts lying vacant.Against a sanctioned strength of 90 station officers, only 18 positions are filled while 72 remain vacant. Station officers, among the department’s most critical field positions, are responsible for leading and supervising firefighting and rescue operations at the fire station level and act as key field-level operational commanders.The last recruitment for the post was conducted in 2011-12, and despite the staff shortage faced by Delhi govt’s firefighting agency, no major effort was made to fill the gap.Overall, there are 1,030 vacancies at various levels against a sanctioned strength of 3,633 posts, and 412 posts are held by contractual employees. The department operates through 71 fire stations, including 67 regular stations and four daytime stations, across the capital.The manpower shortage extends to frontline personnel too, who respond to fires and emergencies, operate firefighting equipment and conduct rescue operations, apart from handling other urgent situations. In the fire operator category, which forms the backbone of firefighting operations, there are 2,367 sanctioned posts, out of which 1,815 have been filled, leaving 552 posts vacant. To address this shortfall, 312 contractual fire operators have been engaged by the department.Meanwhile, data accessed by TOI shows DFS received 36,877 emergency calls in 2025-26 — the highest recorded in the past six years — with fire-related incidents accounting for 55.2% of the total calls. The rising volume of emergencies has put increasing pressure on the department’s already stretched personnel and vehicle fleet.The emergency call data also reveals changing patterns in the department’s workload. Fire calls peaked at 21,668 in 2024-25 before marginally declining to 20,379 in 2025-26. However, overall emergency calls continued to rise due to increases in rescue and miscellaneous operations, indicating that DFS is increasingly functioning as a multi-hazard emergency response agency rather than only a firefighting force.“The large volume of rescue calls, accident-related responses and other non-fire emergencies shows the work pressure and the need for manpower,” said an official.A 2011 MHA-commissioned fire risk study identified major gaps in manpower and other aspects of fire services in Delhi. According to the report, DFS had only 1,631 personnel deployed across 53 fire stations, whereas the requirement for existing operational stations alone was estimated at 4,278 personnel, indicating a gap of 2,647 staff. When future urban expansion and proposed new fire stations were included, the total manpower shortfall rose sharply to 5,766 personnel across 99 fire stations.An official said considering the high vacancy of station officers, the department is considering promoting eligible officers within the fire services to fill key vacancies.Noting the city’s population density and geographical position changed dramatically in the past 14-15 years, Delhi minister Ashish Sood said, “Multi-storey structures have come up in narrow streets, access lanes have shrunk, and many fire hydrants have become inaccessible due to encroachments. However, previous govts did not take action to upgrade infrastructure or address gaps in manpower.”“After BJP govt came to power, modernisation of the fire services has been prioritised. We are preparing a comprehensive 25-year master plan focused on infrastructure expansion, advanced equipment, technology integration, fire prevention and rapid emergency response,” Sood added.
