Fire at New Ashok Nagar police station guts seized vehicles amid rising heat-related blazes

A fire at New Ashok Nagar police station destroyed vehicles but caused no injuries. Increased fire calls in Delhi coincide with record high temperatures.

A massive fire broke out in the malkhana (storage room) of New Ashok Nagar police station on Tuesday afternoon, gutting several vehicles kept as case property. Firefighters brought the blaze under control in over an hour, police said, adding that no casualties or injuries were reported.

Charred remains of the vehicles after the fire. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

According to police, the fire was noticed around 1pm in the lawn-cum-parking area where seized vehicles linked to criminal cases were parked. Police station staff immediately began efforts to douse the flames using fire extinguishers and water from the overhead tank, while the fire department was alerted.

Fire tenders from the New Ashok Nagar fire station rushed to the spot and launched firefighting operations. The blaze was completely extinguished by around 2.20pm, police said.

“Preliminary inquiry suggests that the fire originated from parked case property vehicles in the malkhana area, though the exact cause is yet to be ascertained,” said deputy commissioner of police (east) Rajeev Kumar, adding that the exact number of damaged vehicles was still being ascertained. The lawn area, he said, is spread across around 2,000 square metres.

The Delhi Fire Services said fire calls have increased as the maximum temperature in the capital crossed the 45°C mark.

The maximum temperature on Tuesday settled at 45.1°C — the highest recorded so far this year in Delhi — according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The weather office has issued an orange alert for the week, with the maximum temperature expected to remain between 44°C and 46°C.

The Delhi Fire Service said daily fire incidents have nearly doubled in the second half of May.

Data accessed by HT showed that the fire department received 66 fire calls on May 1, while the number rose to 140 by May 18, an increase of over 112% in just 18 days. The total number of emergency calls handled by the department also climbed from 106 on May 1 to 186 on May 18.

The trend became more pronounced after May 14, the data showed. Fire calls rose from 89 on May 14 to 91 on May 15 and 97 on May 16, before jumping sharply to 138 on May 17 and 140 on May 18, the highest recorded so far this month.

Officials said the summer months traditionally witness a spike in fire incidents due to extreme heat, overloading of electrical systems, increased use of cooling appliances and dry conditions that allow flames to spread rapidly.

“The number of daily fire calls remained between 50 and 90 during the first half of May but crossed the 130-mark on three occasions in the past week. This is likely to increase further in June and July, going by past trends,” a senior fire official said on condition of anonymity.

Fire officials said teams remain on alert every summer and smaller emergency vehicles are sometimes deployed at vulnerable locations, including industrial clusters, markets and congested residential areas.