17 fires reported in Ghaziabad, no loss of life or property
In 2016, on the night of Diwali, a 55-year-old man died while a dozen people suffered severe burn injuries when an illegally operated firecracker shop in Murad Nagar caught fire
There was no death or major damage to property due to fire this Diwali, with 17 relatively non-major incidents of fire being reported across the district.
Last year, the fire department received calls with respect to 19 different incidents of fire.
In 2016, on the night of Diwali, a 55-year-old man died while a dozen people suffered severe burn injuries when an illegally operated firecracker shop in Murad Nagar caught fire. The fire started after a stray cracker landed in the shop and escalated into a major fire.
In 2015, as many as 21 major fire incidents were reported to the fire stations across Ghaziabad on the day of Diwali.
According to officials, the majority of calls this Diwali were reported from garbage dumps or storage areas, and fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spots and the fire doused.
“Although we remain alert every day, our personnel and officers have been working round-the-clock since a day before Diwali. This Diwali, we had stationed fire tenders in different areas so that they could respond immediately, which ensured that no fire escalated and loss of life or major damage to property could be averted,” said Sunil Kumar Singh, chief fire officer, Ghaziabad, said.
According to official records, two buses caught fire on October 19 in an area under the Sihani Gate police station, and the buses were damaged before the fire could be doused.
The fire department officers, however, were able to avert a major fire incident at the Kavi Nagar industrial area, where nearly around 200 drums containing chemicals were stored at a chemical factory complex.
“The fire probably started due to an issue with the stored chemicals. There were fewer calls this year due to the decrease in the bursting of crackers,” Singh said.
Several fire tenders were also rushed to a site on Meerut Road Industrial area, where a fire was reported at a chemical plant but no injury or loss of life was reported.
In the early hours on October 20, two bikes, three scooties and a cycle were damaged after a fire broke out at a residential area in Sanjay Nagar. Officials said that it could have been due to some stray fireworks.
A day before Diwali, fire in two flats — one on the sixth floor and another on 11th floor — of a high-rise in Raj Nagar Extension was doused in time as the fire tenders rushed to the incident sites. Officials said the fire could have resulted from the lighting of diyas or stray fireworks.
According to the records of the fire department, six calls were made to Sahibabad station while two calls were made to Vaishali fire station. The highest number of calls — nine — was received by Kotwali fire station on Diwali.
