Panchkula: Firefighters on alert, over 200 calls received this month so far

Panchkula: As the temperature has risen this summer, the number of fire calls at all the four fire stations in the district is on the rise. Nearly 200 calls have been received at the fire stations within a fortnight from June 1 till now. District fire wing officials said they are continuously attending to fire calls in 12-hour shifts. There are four fire stations in the area – one each at Sector 5 and Sector 20, a fire sub-station at Barwala and another at Kalka. District Fire Officer Tarsem Rana said the fire officers are continuously attending to fire calls. He said they received around 92 calls at Sector 5 station, 43 each at Sector 20 station and Barwala sub-station and 26 at Kalka fire station. “This is data of just 15 days from June 1 to June 15. We received 204 fire calls in 15 days, that is, an average of 13 calls every day. Though most of these incidents were minor, every fire incident is important and must be dealt with immediate response and utmost care to control its spread and completely eliminate it,” he said. “The number of fire incidents in these 15 days this year is almost double compared to last year. The rising temperature has led to a rise in fire incidents,” he said.
The fire office has received fire calls regarding air conditioner fires, cylinder blasts and fires in slums, garbage dumped in heaps and wild plants. The fire incident in Morni Hills in May remained a major cause of concern. “The fire continued for several days,” an official said. We also deployed two of our fire tenders to prevent the spread of fire in Morni area.” Another official said the department received more than 10 calls of fire on Tuesday. These included a second fire incident after a collision between two trucks at Golpura Village on Panchkula-Barwala Road on June 10, in which their drivers were killed, the official said. Another call from Phase 1 Industrial Area and one fire call each from Sectors 7 and 8 of the city were about wild plants catching fire. Sector 5 fire station has a total of 15 fire tenders, including four small tenders. Other stations have two to five fire tenders. Tarsem Rana said we have adequate staff and have increased their duty hours from 8 hours to 12 hours. He said fire incidents are expected to reduce as soon as the monsoon begins.