Fire department gets 201 calls on Diwali

New Delhi: The Delhi fire department received 201 calls related to fire incidents on the occasion of Diwali, which was 32 per cent higher than the last year, officials said on Tuesday.

The department received 152 fire-related calls in 2021, 205 in 2020, 245 in 2019, 271 in 2018, 204 in 2017, 243 in 2016 and 290 in 2015, according to official data.

In one of the incidents on Monday, a fire broke out in a garment factory in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar area in the evening. Four people were rescued from the third floor of the factory, while a fireman suffered minor injuries in the operation.

A fire also broke out in a restaurant in northwest Delhi's Prashant Vihar area.

The officials said information about the fire was received at 8:50 pm, following

which fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

Earlier, the fire department had said it would deploy fire tenders at 22 spots on Sunday and on Diwali from 5 pm till midnight as a precautionary measure.

An internal committee headed by the chief fire officer was directed to identify 50 spots in the national capital where mobile fire tenders can be deployed.

These spots were selected on the basis of an analysis of yearly fire-related calls received on Diwali.

A large number of high-decibel firecrackers thundered throughout Diwali night on Monday as people in Delhi flouted the ban imposed on these by the city government.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has registered 16 cases for allegedly bursting firecrackers in the city in the last four days, officials said on Tuesday.

According to data, police have registered 58 cases for selling firecrackers and a total of 2,834.13 kg firecrackers have been seized for storage or sale.

It further said 150 cases have been registered for selling firecrackers and 17,357.13 kg firecrackers was seized from October 1 till October 24.

Police have registered 23 cases for bursting firecrackers and seized 3.6 kilogram firecrackers during the

same period.