Ranchi: The state fire department has launched a week-long awareness programme to ensure preparedness to tackle fire incidents, commemorating Fire Service Week from Tuesday through April 20.This year’s campaign is themed “Safe School, Safe Hospital and Fire Safety Aware Society – Together for Fire Prevention”, underscoring the need to prioritise fire safety measures in vulnerable and high-footfall institutions such as schools and hospitals.Jharkhand assistant state fire officer (in-charge), Jitendra Tiwari, said that, to mark the week, department officials will visit various educational institutions and hospitals to sensitise citizens on fire hazards, prevention techniques, and timely response during emergencies.“As part of the campaign, all 44 fire stations across Jharkhand will conduct mock drills in educational institutions, healthcare facilities, govt offices, and commercial establishments to assess preparedness and train people in evacuation procedures. The awareness around fire safety is unfortunately very poor in the state, so we will try to raise awareness among a larger number of people. We will try to reach at least three institutions a day during the week,” Tiwari added.While the fire safety department has planned to carry out awareness drives, an official of the department, on condition of anonymity, said that an acute man-power crunch in the department is going to pose challenges for them in spreading awareness to more people during the week. “Although all stations across the state have sufficient fire tender vehicles. The stations do not have enough staff to effectively run those,” the official added.This year’s campaign is themed “Safe School, Safe Hospital and Fire Safety Aware Society – Together for Fire Prevention”