The Hindu : 65 p.c. fire cases due to short circuit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 14, 2003

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65 p.c. fire cases due to short circuit

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI APRIL 13. The Delhi Fire Service (DFS), which is observing Fire Safety Week beginning April 14, had to deal with an increase in the number of fire incidents in the year 2002. While one of the reasons was a long summer season, "traditional problems'' -- congested clusters and presence of inflammable material and loose electrical connections -- led to more deaths and injuries.

Interacting with the media on the eve of the commencement of the week, the Chief Fire Officer, R.C.Sharma, said while the number of those dead in fire incidents in 2002-2003 stood at 298 -- an increase of 37 from 2001-2002 -- the number of calls increased by 1,659 and stood at 15,344. While no major incident of fire was reported in the year 2002-2003, the number of serious fire incidents showed a marginal increase from three to eight. The losses in these incidents have been estimated to be Rs. 50 crores, while fire-fighting saved property worth approximately Rs. 87 crores.

Interestingly, while the number of fire incidents reported from J.J. clusters increased marginally from 129 to 138, the number of jhuggies which were gutted in 2002 were 255 less than reported in the year 2001. A total of 3,510 jhuggies were gutted this year.

There was an increase in the number of fire incidents reported from industrial as well as residential areas. However, the number of fire incidents reported from high- rise buildings came down marginally from 64 to 58. Short circuit continued to be the biggest reason for fire incidents, accounting for at least 65 per cent of the cases. Another 30 per cent or so were caused by accidents. Quite a few incidents were cases of mischief.

In addition to 36 fire stations already operating across the Capital, at least 34 more are proposed to completed in the 10th Five Year Plan. At present, 26 sites have been acquired for construction of the stations and work is in progress on 12 sites. Another four temporary fire stations -- Wazirabad at Loni Road Crossing, Okhla Phase-I, Shastri Park and Paschim Vihar -- would be made functional this month. One temporary fire station has started functioning at Jaffarpur Kalan from April 1.

During the safety week, the DFS would hold rescue and fire- fighting demonstrations at 10 places across the Capital. Significant among them being the Delhi Metro Railway stations located at Shahdara, Welcome Colony, Seelampur and Shastri Park on April 16 and 17. Amba Deep and Ansal Bhawan in Connaught Place and Ansal Towers in Nehru Place are among other places where these demonstrations would be held.

The DFS has proposed for sanction of more than double the amount of money in the current fiscal. As against Rs. 30.99 crores sanctioned for 2002-2003, the DFS has proposed Rs. 64.43 crores. They hope that construction of fire stations and other projects would be completed this year with the money and also future projects taken up.

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