The Delhi Fire Service received 205 calls related to fire incidents on Deepavali, slightly less compared to last year, officials said on Sunday.
The incidents include a fire at a godown in west Delhi’s Mundka in which a 28-year-old man was killed while another was injured, the police said.
“We received 205 fire-related calls till Deepavali midnight and only two calls were specifically related to firecracker bursting while most of the calls were about the blaze in open areas or dump yards,” Delhi Fire Service director Atul Garg said.
Last year, the fire department had received 245 such calls on the festival day, the official said.
Of the total calls received, 129 were handled by the fire service department’s control room during the peak hours (from 6 p.m. to 11.58 p.m.), the time when people usually lit diyas after puja and burst firecrackers.
Despite a complete ban on the usage of all kinds of firecrackers, Mr. Garg said, “We responded to 205 calls this year on Deepavali which is slightly less as compared to last year.”
Cracker ban
“It could be due to imposition of a complete ban but people were still found bursting firecrackers and most of the garbage dumps that caught fire are also due to fireworks,” he said.
Cracker ban
The National Green Tribunal had imposed a total ban on the sale or use of all kinds of firecrackers in the NCR from November 9 to November 30.
Of the 205 calls received, 175 were related to fire while the remaining were related to other requirements, including assistance for rescuing birds and animals, the senior fire official said.
Only two of the 175 calls were related to fire due to bursting of firecrackers, while 71 calls were related to fire at dump yards or open areas, including fire at a cooler-cum-wood godown in Mundka area on Saturday night, he said.
The deceased and injured were identified as Sunil Kumar (28), and Aditya (20) respectively, both residents of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, the official said. The official suspects that Kumar was sleeping inside the godown when the fire broke out. The charred body was recovered from the godown, he said. The fire was eventually brought under control but what led to the blaze is not known yet, he said.
The Delhi Fire Service had deployed 2,500 personnel to deal with any emergency during the festival. Also, fire tenders were deployed at 24 locations across the city from 5 p.m. to midnight on both the days, the official said.
‘Oil rain’
The DFS said that on Sunday, they received around 57 calls from all parts of Delhi over ‘oil rain’. “It seems that the road had turned slippery due to rain, dust and other materials on the road. Hence, motorists gave the call,” said a DFS officer.
