Summer approaches, DFS receives 50 percent less calls
NEW DELHI: At the beginning of summer last year in April, the Delhi Fire Services had received around 80-100 incident calls per day. Usually, the DFS prepares to operate at full capacity during the summer months as people start using air conditioners, other cooling appliances and factories use heavy machinery, which put stress on the overloaded power grids of congested areas in Delhi. However, this April, the Fire department said that they had received a total of only 251 calls in the first five days of the month compared to 483 calls in the same period last year - a decrease of nearly 50 per cent.
According to the fire department, comparing the first five days of April 2019, as many as 483 calls were received regarding various incidents like fires, accidents, houses collapsing and others. This year, the DFS has received around 40-50 incident calls per day on an average, most of which were related to animal rescue.
On April 1, 46 calls were made; on April 2, 40 calls; on April 3, 45 calls; on April 4, 51 calls and on April 5 the highest number of calls were received, which stood at 69.
April 5 was the night the country had started bursting firecrackers in a flagrant violation of the Prime Minister's call for expressing solidarity with candles and lamps. Meanwhile, in 2019, April 1- 91 calls, April 2- 83 calls, April- 96 calls, April 4- 93 calls and surprisingly like current year, the highest number of calls was received on April 5, 2019, which was 120. On Sunday night, the DFS had received a call about a "blaze" at Lok Nayak Bhawan, minutes after people switched off electric lights at their homes at 9 pm on Sunday and lit earthen lamps and flashed mobile phone torch lights, but it turned out to be a false alarm.
Delhi Fire Services (DFS) Director Atul Garg told Millennium Post that due to lockdown, there was a decrease in the number of calls. "Most ofthe calls were related to animal rescue which was attended by our staff," he said. Another official said that due to the closure of factories, small units, fire calls have stopped. "We have also briefed our staff about precautions which they will be taking for their safety from COVID-19. Our staff is on the alert to handle any kind of untoward incident related to fire," the official said. Last year, from January to April 15, the DFS had received 9,368 calls of different types of incidents in which 116 persons died and 467 injured in various incidents. The city had witnessed three serious fire incidents, 13 medium category fire and 13 make six category fire.
