Fire control room logs 80 calls on Diwali night

Jaipur: The city's fire control room logged 80 calls on Diwali night this year, a significant down from 150 calls recorded last year.

All through Diwali night, the fire tenders remained occupied in slum areas where piles of waste caught fire due to firecrackers. "This Diwali we were fortunate as there were no major incidents of fire. There were a few incidents of blaze in the city, mainly near slum areas where waste and dustbins caught fire and engulfed portions of some shops," said Jalag Ghasiya, Jaipur fire officer.

The fire department also received calls about fire incidents resulting due to short circuit. "We had a few cases where faulty electric cables caught fire. Three shops caught fire but we quickly managed to extinguish the fire," added Ghasiya.

"There was certainly some decline in number of phone calls this Diwali, unlike previous years, there were no major incidents of blaze due to firecrackers," he added.

The fire department has about 50 active fire tenders, which are stationed across different parts of the city. The fire call centre received frantic calls from some petrol pumps which feared that fire crackers like rockets may land near their tanks and cause fire. "Last year we had major cases of fire which engulfed a few stationary cars, this year, such incidents did not come to our knowledge," the official said, adding that most busy hours of the night were between 9pm and 11.30pm on Diwali when the call centre began getting calls from Bassi, Vaishali Nagar, Vidyadhar Nagar, Mansarovar, Kacchi Basti and Bhatta Basti localities.

"We were prepared to meet the Diwali challenge, all units had fanned across the city, hence, we were also able to cover all distress calls," said Ghasiya.