Ahmedabad firemen breathe easy this festive season

As Amdavadis celebrated festival of light gorging on delicacies and bursting crackers, around 300 firemen and senior officials of the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Service (AFES) had been on alert since Dhanteras (November 3) to help tackle any fatal fire accidents.

Now, senior officials of the emergency services have heaved a sigh of relief for, according to them, this Diwali has been probably one of the easiest in the last couple of years. This is because there were no reports of any major fire, loss of life and property and burn injuries.

Data available with the AFES revealed that for the period between November 3 and November 9 it received a total of 68 calls to attend to fire break-outs from across the city.

"Analysis of the data suggests that at around 33 places, fire broke out due to bursting of crackers. In the rest of the incidents, fire was caused by short-circuit among others," said deputy chief fire official at the AFES, Rajesh Bhatt.

He said that it was after many years that they had an 'easy Diwali'. "The number of emergency calls received during Diwali in the last few years was almost three times higher," he said. Bhatt also said that most of the fire incidents were caused due to negligence.

"No loss to life was registered in any of the incidents. In most of the cases garbage collected at some place following the Diwali cleaning had caught fire," said Bhatt.