29 fire incidents reported from city on Diwali night

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 20

As many as 29 fire incidents were reported from the city in a span of one hour and 40 minutes on Diwali night.

The first incident was reported at 08:20 pm and the last incident at 10 pm. The entire staff of the Municipal Corporation’s fire brigade department, along with some volunteers of NGOs, were on their toes to handle the situation.

They faced a tough task to take their limited paraphernalia and employees to the accident sites. Against the sanctioned strength of about 120 posts, nearly 80 employees are working. Leave of all employees was cancelled on the day.

The Fire Brigade Department here is equipped with 14 fire tenders, each having 5,000-litre water capacity, and five small tenders, each having 500-litre water capacity. These fire tenders are to be placed at different places to ensure early mobility towards the accident site, anywhere in the city.

No major injury was reported in the fire incidents. One of the fire incidents was reported from a store of readymade garments at Chitta Katra in the walled city. Being situated in a congested lane, fire fighters had to use long pipes to douse the fire.

Another major incident was reported from a furniture shop at Hussainpura and other from a saw mill on the Maqboolura road.

Assistant Divisional Fire Officer Kashmir Singh said it was way ahead of average 20 incidents on previous Diwali nights.