28 fire incidents reported on Diwali

At least 28 incidents of fire were reported on the day of Diwali from various parts of the city. However, no injuries were reported in any of them, said Gurugram

At least 28 incidents of fire were reported on the day of Diwali from various parts of the city. However, no injuries were reported in any of them, said Gurugram fire department officials on Sunday.

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As per the officials, all the incidents took place between 6pm and midnight on Saturday, November 14.

Of all the fire incidents, 26 were categorised as minor by officials, while two incidents — one in Sector 50 and the other in Sector 67 — were said to be major.

In the first of these two incidents, three buses of a private school caught fire, with one of them getting completely gutted while the other two getting partially burnt.

“The driver or the conductor of the bus had lit a candle or a diya (lamp) inside, the flames of which resulted in the bus catching fire. We had stationed a fire tender at Vatika Chowk. It reached the spot within three minutes after the incident was reported,” said Satyawan Samriwal, assistant divisional fire safety officer (ADFSO).

“With three buses catching fire, we sent another fire tender from the Sector 29 fire department for support. The two fire tenders were able to douse the flames in under 15 minutes. However, the bus where the fire had originally broken out was completely gutted,” said Samriwal.

In the second incident, three cars parked at a vacant plot near IREO Victory Valley were gutted after a fire broke out possibly due to stray firecrackers.

Minor fires also broke out in apartments located in Sector 9, South City-2, Sector 46 and Udyog Vihar while stray firecrackers resulted in a shop containing decoration items near Sikanderpur Rapid Metro station catching fire.

Apart from these incidents, a rag collection point at a vacant plot opposite Signature Towers, and a 1.5acre farm in Farrukhnagar also caught fire.

“All these remaining incidents were minor and, in most cases, required limited or no use of fire tenders. Overall, no injuries were reported in any of the incidents. We had strategically placed fire tenders at five different points across the city, besides having five fire stations, to ensure the minimum amount of response time,” said Samriwal.

The fire department had placed fire tenders at Vatika Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Old Railway Road, Mahavir Chowk, and Palam Vihar.

The fire department have also cancelled the leaves of all 200 firemen till November 16 to ensure that there are more available staff. The 200 firemen are working in two shifts of 12 hours each, instead of three shifts of eight hours each.