Five days, 30L litres of water & 250 personnel to tame this fire

NOIDA: A fire that raged on a vacant plot to collect mulch in Sector 30 was finally brought under control after five days on Monday, though smoke continued to billow from the site and a fire engine remained on standby to tame any embers that may spring up.

Officials said that at least 30 lakh litres of water has was used over the last five days to douse the flames.
The chief fire officer said that, with the help of 30 fire department vehicles and a JCB, the fire was finally extinguished.
About 250 fire department personnel had been deployed to the site. Two borewells were dug in the dumping ground.
More than 700 water tankers were used to extinguish the fire.
“On Sunday night, when the fire was almost doused, we had asked the horticulture department to take charge as the team was needed at another location. Due to lack of wind, there was still some fire burning on the lower surface till Monday morning, because of which the smoke was rising continuously. It was indeed a challenging task but the task was completed,” said chief fire officer (CFO) of Gautam Budh Nagar Pradeep Kumar Chaubey.
The fire broke out on Thursday night and continued to burn till Monday morning. According to a Noida Authority official, the plot belongs to it and is meant to be used to decompose dry leaves.
“About 100 vehicles of Noida Authority collect leaves from sectors and throw them at this plot. Then the leaves get covered by soil. However, the dry leaves were not covered under the soil in March and April. Some miscreants who used to smoke here had thrown a cigarette butt which led to the fire,” said Anand Mohan, an official from the horticulture department, Noida Authority.
Local residents said they were having to pay for the carelessness of civic officials. “Local residents had been suffering because of the the smoke generated by the fire,” said Kavita Jamel.