New Delhi: The number of fire incidents has started rising in the national capital. In the past week, more than five such incidents took place in parts of Delhi. The official data provided by the DFS shows that more than 70 per cent of the rise in the death toll in the year 2021-22, as compared to the erstwhile year and a six per cent rise in the fire calls as compared to 2020-21.
Data says a total of 591 people died in the fire accidents between 2021 to 2022 whereas 346 people died between 2020 to 2021. The total number of fire calls DFS received during 2021-22 was 27,343 whereas 25,709 calls were received during 2020-21.
However, at the same time, DFS officials confirmed that 13 fire incidents were marked under the 'medium fire category' and two were 'serious' in 2021-22, while in 2020-21, 19 fire incidents were marked under 'medium fire category' and two were 'serious'.
During 2021-22, 1,421 people sustained injuries while in 2020-21, 1,135 people were injured. At the same time, the fire service also mentioned that between 2019 to 2020, the numbers of calls responded to by the DFS were 31,157, medium fires were 27, serious fires were five, and 308 died while 1,638 were injured.
In 2018-19, 31,264 calls were responded by the DFS, 27 fire were marked as medium and four were serious, 297 died and 1,597 were injured during this span. Similarly, in 2017-18 the calls responded were 29423, the medium fire was 24, and four were marked as serious fire. During that year 318 people died and 1767 sustained injuries.
Senior DFS official S K Dua told Millennium Post: "During summer, the calls we respond to have doubled. The reasons behind such incidents seems to be explosions in ACs or short circuits."