Panchkula firefighters on toes, get over 200 calls this month so far

Panchkula, June 18

With the rise in temperatures this summer, the fire calls received at the four fire stations in the district have remained high. The fire stations have received about 200 fire calls within a fortnight since June 1. Officials of the District Fire Wing said they have been on fire calls constantly with 12-hour shifts.

The region has four fire stations — a station each at Sector 5 and Sector 20; a fire sub-station at Barwala; and another at Kalka. The District Fire Officer, Tarsem Rana, said the fire officials have been working on fire calls constantly.

He said they received about 92 fire calls at the Sector 5 station, 43 each at the Sector 20 station and Barwala sub-stations, and 26 calls at the Kalka fire station. He said, “This is the data for merely 15 days from June 1 to June 15. We received 204 fire calls in a matter of 15 days, averaging 13 calls every day. Though most of these were small incidents, each fire incident is important and needs to be dealt with immediate response and extreme caution to control its spread and eliminate it completely.”

“The number in these 15 days this year is nearly double the calls we received last year. The fire incidents have increased due to the rising temperature,” he added.

The fire office has received fire calls regarding fire outbreaks in air conditioners, cylinder blasts, and incidents of fire in slum areas, waste discarded in piles, and wild growth.

The fire incident in the Morni Hills remained a major cause of concern in May. “The fire continued for days. We even deputed two of our fire tenders in the Morni area to curtain any spread,” an official pointed out.

Another official said the department received over 10 fire calls on Tuesday. The official said these included a fire that reignited in two trucks that had earlier collided and caught fire, killing their drivers at Golpura village on the Panchkula-Barwala road on June 10. Another call from Phase 1 Industrial Area and a fire call each from the city’s Sectors 7 and 8 regarding outbreaks in wild growth, among others.

The Sector 5 fire station has a total 15 fire tenders, including four small tenders. The other stations have two to five fire tenders each.

Tarsem Rana pointed out that we have enough staff and have increased their duty hours from 8 hours to 12 hours. He said the incidents of fire are expected to drop as soon as the monsoons begin.