Delhi fire service responds to 205 distress calls on Diwali
New Delhi: The Delhi Fire Service received 205 calls related to fire incidents on Diwali, slightly less than the last year, officials said on Sunday.
The incidents include a fire at a godown in west Delhi's Mundka in which a 28-year-old man was killed while another was injured, they said.
"We received 205 fire-related calls till Diwali midnight and only two calls were specifically related to firecracker bursting while most of the calls were about the blaze in open areas or dump yards," Delhi Fire Service Director Atul Garg said.
Of the total calls received, 129 were handled by the fire service department's control room during the peak hours (from 6 pm to 11.58 pm), the time when people usually lit diyas after puja and burst firecrackers.
Despite a complete ban on the usage of all kinds of firecrackers, Garg said "we responded to 205 calls this year on Diwali which is slightly less as compared to the last year."
"It could be due to imposition of a complete ban but people were still found bursting firecrackers and most of the garbage dumps that caught fire are also due to fireworks," he said.
Last year, the fire department had received 245 calls related to fire incidents on Diwali, the officer said.
The National Green Tribunal on Monday imposed a total ban on the sale or use of all kinds of firecrackers in the National Capital Region from midnight of November 9 to midnight of November 30.
Ahead of Diwali, the Delhi government too had imposed a total ban on firecrackers, including the environmentally safer green crackers, from November 7-30 to combat rising air pollution amid an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the city.
Out of the 205 calls received on this Diwali, 175 were related to fire while the remaining were related to other requirements, including assistance for rescuing birds and animals, the senior fire official said.
Only two of the 175 calls were related to fire due to bursting of firecrackers, while 71 calls were related to fire at dump yards or open areas, including the fire at a cooler-cum-wood godown in Mundka area on Saturday night, he said.
The injured and the deceased were identified as Aditya, 20, and Sunil Kumar, 28, respectively. Both were residents of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, the police official said.
The official suspects that Kumar was sleeping inside the godown when the fire broke out.
"A call about the fire was received at around 11.05 pm and 12 fire tenders were rushed to the spot," Garg said.
The charred body was recovered from inside the godown, he said.
The fire was eventually brought under control but what led to the blaze is not known yet, he added.
The Delhi Fire Service had deployed 2,500 personnel to deal with any emergency on the occasion. Also, fire tenders were deployed at 24 locations across the city from 5 pm to midnight on both the days, the official said.
The vehicles were deployed at Azad Market Chowk, Jaipur Golden Hospital, New Ashok Nagar, Yamuna Vihar, Radha Soami Satsang - Bhati Mines, Bara Tooti Chowk, Tilak Nagar, Lajpat Nagar (Central Market), Lal Kuan Chowk, Lahori Gate, Nangloi, South Extension, Sonia Vihar, Mehrauli, Ghitorni Metro station, Alipur police station, Rani Bagh Market, DTC Deport Katran Market, Gandhi Nagar Market, Mahipalpur Chowk, Sangam Vihar, Mundka Metro Station, Chhatarpur Near Tivoli Garden.
Besides, motorcycles with fire fighting equipment and high-pressure pumps were also deployed to douse the fire on the streets and narrow lanes.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
