Police, fire services join hands for safe festivities

The Delhi Police and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) will be working in tandem to ensure that the fireworks don’t get out of hand this Diwali.

The Delhi Police and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) will be working in tandem to ensure that the fireworks don’t get out of hand this Diwali.

HT Image

While the Delhi Police have been carefully scrutinising licences sought for the storage of crackers, DFS has decided to station emergency units at two police stations located closest to two of the most ‘flammable’ industrial areas in Delhi .

“Fire tenders will be standing-by at the Nangloi police station near the Mundka plastic scrap market and the Alipur police station near the Katran Market so that reaction time is reduced,” said AK Sharma, director, DFS.

The only fire station near the Mundka scrap market, which is notorious for enormous blazes, is located at Tikri, more than six kms away while the distance between the DFS station at Bhor Garh and the Katran Market area is more than 18 km.

The step is keeping in line with the delay that the DFS face — that of being informed of a fire incident by the local police instead of the informant himself, thus increasing reaction time.

“With this arrangement, we will be able to get on the job as soon as a PCR call about a fire is received by our counterparts in the Delhi Police. More than a 1,000 DFS officials will be on call on Diwali,” Sharma said.

Meanwhile, police’s strictness in granting licences ensured a fall of more than 600 applications in comparison to 2010.