Fire Services get highest number of calls this year

While firefighters in the capital attended to the highest number of Diwali-related calls in the past five years, fire incidents due to use of crackers saw a decline. No loss of life was reported in fire incidents this time.

Of a total 287 calls received by the fire department, 211 were related to Diwali celebrations, a fire department official said. Of these, 55 were caused by firecrackers. There was no  “appreciable” increase or decrease in fire incidents compared to last year, Delhi Fire Service (DFS) Director A K Sharma said.

Considering Delhi’s population, the way residential localities are designed, and the amount of crackers burst by people, the number of incidents on Diwali is not high, Sharma told Deccan Herald.

The 211 fire calls were recorded from Thursday to 7 am on Friday. The second highest such calls at 207 were recorded in 2009. The number of calls over the past five years has been hovering around 169 and 211, officials said.

Last year, 70 fire incidents were caused by crackers compared to 55 this year. The officer said that on Diwali night, firefighters enquire during every incident if the blaze in that case was caused by crackers.

The DFS deployed fire tenders at 20 vulnerable locations across the city. These included congested areas and important marketplaces.

According to DFS, the period between 6 pm and 8 pm is regarded as the peak hour for bursting of crackers, and this is when 20-25 calls were received on Thursday evening.