44 fire incidents on festival night in Jalandhar

Tribune News Service

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, October 25

Just like every year, city firemen remained on their toes the entire Diwali night this time too. A total of 44 fire incidents were reported in the city. Fire officials kept getting calls from 5 in the evening yesterday till 8 am Tuesday morning. Fortunately, no big loss was reported. Barring fire at a store at New Sirajgang on Nakodar Road, in which some valuable items were gutted, all of the incidents were minor.

Fire tenders were pressed into service within minutes. Last year, 62 incidents were reported on Diwali night. The cases were reported from the Railway station, Lamma Pind Chowk, Babrik Chowk, Adarsh Nagar, etc.

The department this time was prepared to tackle any big incident. Sensitive areas were specially looked after. Fire tenders were deployed near such areas to avoid any untoward happening. Also, the vehicles were placed at mid points of the city from where it was easy for the firemen to reach the spot at the earliest.

The department also received around 10 hoax calls wherein miscreants claimed that there was fire, but when the staff reached the place, nothing was found. “We witness these kinds of problems too where notorious people indulge in doing such mischief,” a fireman said.

As per the information, against 109 sanctioned posts of firemen, only 54 are filled which makes it difficult for the department to work to their full capacity. Since 1997, the total sanctioned posts have been 109, and after so many years, with an increase in population and area, the number of posts should also have been brought on a par. “But forget about increasing the posts, the required ones are also not filled,” said a source.

They said there was a requirement of vehicles, too, but they were not even asking for it from the head office. “When there are not enough drivers or firemen, who will use the vehicles,” an official said.

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