Fire Service to spread itself across city for Diwali

The Fire Department will set up firefighting units at several temporary locations in the city so that it is better prepared to tackle any emergency around Diwali. These units will be in addition to its 59 permanent fire stations.

Delhi Fire Service is going by its experience last year on Diwali and Diwali eve. “We expect more than 250 calls on Diwali day (counting both Diwali and Diwali eve), based on our experiences last year. In summer, we had received an unprecedented 150 calls a day, especially in the month of May,” G C Mishra, Director of Fire Services told Deccan Herald.

Additional forces have been deployed ahead of Diwali and both casual and earned leave cancelled for October 29 and 30, Mishra said.

“We have opened several fire stations or fire posts based on previous experiences. These are the pockets or area in Delhi from where we get a large number of calls,” he said.

The units at the temporary locations will reduce the response time on Diwali, Mishra said. “We position the vehicles at 5 pm in the evening in these areas which remain on standby,” he said.

He said a letter to the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) has been written to spread public awareness through advertisements in newspapers on both October 29 and 30.

The temporary fire units, each with four members, will be positioned atTilak Nagar, Bara Tooti, Lajpat Nagar, Lal Kuan Chowk, Lahori Gate, Nangloi police station, South Extension, Sonia Vihar, Mehrauli police station, Alipur police station and Ghitorni Metro station on October 30 from 5 pm to midnight.

In addition, 10 motorcycles and 11 Innova and Xylo cars will be positioned at selected locations around Diwali to tackle fires in narrow lanes. The director said his department would not take any chances even though Chinese crackers have been banned.

“We are not taking a chances even after the ban on Chinese crackers. The bans are called by the government, several NGOs time and again. The Supreme Court also came down heavily on the use of crackers after 10. But if we see the trend, maximum crackers are burst beyond this time after businessmen close their shops and come home. This goes around till 2 or 3 am. People do not respond to a call made for their benefit,” Mishra added.