New Delhi, May 30: Fire-related calls surged to 180 on Wednesday recording a nearly three-fold rise over the single-day calls received by the Delhi Fire Service, with officials attributing the increase to heatwave conditions prevailing in the national capital.
The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received 220 calls, including 183 fire-related, on Wednesday, the highest so far this year, officials said. The remaining calls were related to bird and animal rescue. From January 1 to May 26, the department received 8,912 fire-related calls, according to the data shared by the DFS on Monday.
"We received 183 calls fire-related 24 hours, ending midnight of May 29," DFS chief Atul Garg said. “This was the highest single-day calls recorded so far this year. Usually, we receive almost 150 calls in the whole summer season -- 60 are fire-related and the remaining are related to animal rescue. But this time there is a three-fold rise," he said.
With the temperature soaring in the city and hovering near the 50-degree Celsius mark, Delhi is seeing a rise in fire-related incidents, claiming several lives. According to the data, fire-related incidents have claimed 55 lives and injured more than 300 people in the national capital so far this year.
Sixteen people were killed in fire-related incidents in January, another 16 in February, 12 in March, four in April, and seven till May 26, it said. "In January we received 1,204 calls, 1,032 fire-related calls in February, 1,328 calls in March, in April we received 2,357 calls, and 2,991 calls till May 26 midnight. On May 29, we received the highest number of fire-related calls," Garg said.
He further said that the fire department has received a huge number of calls in the past, but 183 fire-related calls were a massive and alarming number. "During winters we usually received 60 to 70 calls per day and 150 or fewer calls during the summer season. Like temperature is breaking records, fire-related calls broke the record as of now," Garg said.
The Fire department also attends calls like animal rescue and accident-related calls, he said. "It was a massive challenge for the fire department to attend all those 183 calls. There was no loss of lives due to the fire on Wednesday. Our teams visited every single call,” the DFS chief said.
“The massive fire was only one in which 16 cars were damaged in a blaze at a parking lot in east Delhi," he said. According to the fire department, on Thursday most of the fire-related calls were due to electrical short-circuit. "Almost 70 per cent of calls were related to electricity short-circuits and 30 per cent of calls were related to small fires in homes, cars or kitchens, Garg said.
Cautioning Delhiites of electricity overload, he said, "If there are four ACs in a house, one must check the electricity load on the wirings. If the wirings are not able to take that load, they should get it changed." He advised people to ensure that there is no leakage in gas pipelines or cylinders and keep them turned off when not in use. The rise in mercury is leading to multiple fire incidents be it in factories or residential areas in the city.
On May 26, a fire tragedy at Baby Care New Born Hospital in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar area claimed the lives of six newborns and left five babies injured. Five oxygen cylinders exploded when a fire broke out at the neonatal hospital. On Wednesday, five shops were damaged in a blaze in north Delhi's Chandni Chowk.
Meanwhile, DFS said that they have already started special training sessions for the people on how to initially combat the fire or in any case of emergency. "We have already started a realistic computer-generated simulation on tackling fire-related emergencies for the people of the city. So far, more than 55 people have lost their lives due to fire incidents, which is a big number," Garg said.
He said that the virtual training sessions will be conducted in the DFS stations in Rohini and Dwarka. "Equipped with 3D glasses, people will learn how to extinguish fires and handle fire-fighting gear such as hoses and fire extinguishers during the training in the centres," Garg said, adding that each lab can accommodate up to 20 people at a time. These simulators have been functional since April and are free of cost to experience, he said.
