25 calls on Diwali keep firemen on toes; no loss of life, injury

The Fire Brigade Department received about 25 fire calls on Diwali which kept firemen on toes. From these calls, only a few were major ones. Fortunately, no loss of life or injury to anyone reported in these incidents.

Jaswinder Singh Bhangu, Assistant Divisional Fire Safety Officer (ADFO), said about 20 fire calls were received on Diwali night while five received in the wee hours. Firemen reacted immediately to all calls and reached the spots in minimum possible time.

Maximum calls were related to minor fire incidents in which fire broke out in a garbage dump, fire in an empty plot, power transformer caught fire, etc. A hosiery waste warehouse in Star City Colony went up in flames due to a fire caused by a firecracker spark on the night of Diwali and it was one of the major fire incidents reported. The fire caused a panic throughout the entire area. Residents were evacuated from their homes for safety. It took the fire brigade over an hour to reach the scene. The flames were so intense that cracks appeared in walls of nearby houses and the burning of electrical wires plunged the entire colony into darkness. Four fire tenders worked hard till

late night to bring the blaze under control, the ADFO said.

Local residents alleged that despite the administration’s ban, the warehouse owner was storing hosiery waste in an open plot. People have demanded that such warehouses be shut down and action be taken against those responsible.

Another major call was received from Moti Nagar where a fire broke out at a garment factory. Karan who called the fire brigade said the blaze erupted after factory waste caught fire. Factory employees deployed fire extinguishers and doused the flames. Though the fire brigade had also reached later and sprayed water to douse the flames completely.

Another major call was about a fire in a factory at Manna Singh Nagar where textile waste kept on its rooftop caught fire. Gurinder Singh, who called fire brigade, said fire brigade had reached within five minutes and controlled the fire from spreading to the factory. Other major fire was in a godown of diapers at Ajit Nagar, near Lal Kothi.

Firefighters’ leave cancelled till tomorrow

With the fire brigade on its toes during the Diwali celebrations, over 120 firefighters will remain deployed at different fire stations across the city to keep residents safe during the celebrations till October 23 and their leave was also cancelled to tackle emergency situations. As many as 30 fire tenders, including one turntable ladder (56-m height), rescue vans/tenders, mini-tenders among other machinery/equipment, have been deployed in fire stations to tackle any fire incident. Generator sets had also been deployed at tube wells in different parts of the city for refilling the tenders during emergency and staff have been deputed as per requirements.